Blood Plus: Chronicles of a New Era
by A'rembiam
Summary: What happens when a bigger story is unfolding? Just after you thought everything was over and at peace . . .
1. About Time and Changes

**Chapter 1:"Talking About Time and Changes"**

_-"If you could only know how much things have changed, you'll be surprised. But you are lucky, you stay the same" _

The moon shined over the white mausoleum, the air chanted an old tune forgotten to many, but to others it was a memory they held dear. The waves hit the shore of the Japanese island, and the fresh salty breeze you usually found in the beaches filled the air. A tall man, with reddish hair stepped out of the darkness of the night and approached the mausoleum in the top of the hill.

"Hmm, it seems he was here . . . again", said the tall figure of reddish hair as he picked up the abandoned, pink rose with a blue navy ribbon in the steps of the mausoleum.

The man entered the dark mausoleum, lighting the room with only but a simple flashlight; he sat on the cold marble floor and sighed.

"If you could only know how much Aki and Aoi have grown, some times I think they are making me older.", he said with a deep breath and a chuckle," And Robin, when you left he was not even born, now he's a healthy boy, he sure resembles his father. Many things have changed, but you . . . you stay the same, you and Haji are so lucky. "

The reddish haired man took a deep breath, as he said Haji's name, remembering the many times he had seen both Saya and Haji together, but now it seemed as a mere illusion.

"Haji, he was here the other day . . . well I didn't see him, but he left you a rose", Kai said with a shivering voice as he watched the pink rose in his hands, "I'm sure he's ok, maybe he's wandering somewhere watching over you, as always."

Even tough Kai held the rose between his fingers, a proof that Haji was still alive, he couldn't help but thinking about the night at the MET, when Haji almost died facing Amshel, protecting his queen and her family. He stands up of the cold marble floor and places the pink rose over Saya's cocoon in his way out.

"If you could only know how much things have changed, you'll be surprised. But you are lucky, you stay the same" said Kai in a soft and quiet voice. He stepped out of the darkness of the room and into the daylight, only to find a tall blonde American outside.

"David, I didn't expected to see you here", said Kai surprised by David's presence.

"Well, I wouldn't be here if Mao hadn't told me you disappeared in the middle of the night" said a half asleep, half annoyed David, "that woman can be so noisy."

"Tell me, _I_ live with _her_.", said Kai as he laughed, seeing that David's face reflected the few hours of sleeping. They both laughed at Mao's annoying and noisy temperament as they walked downstairs, where a black van was waiting.

"Anyways, that's not why I'm here." said David seriously as some men stepped out of the van and climbed the stairs to the mausoleum.

"Where are they going? What are they doing!?" said a confused Kai,"David, where are they taking Saya?"

"Kai," said David as he stopped him from doing anything reckless, "you must understand that Saya can't be here for the next thirty years, the pass of time can affect her."

"She has been here once for thirty years and she has been fine!" Kai said raising his voice.

"Yes, but when she waked up she didn't remembered a thing", said a voice of a man eating potato chips.

"Lewis? What are you doing here? I thought you had returned to the CIA." Kai said as he sat on the stairs, filled with an indescribable anger, confusion and impotence.

"Hmm? Well, it seems I wasn't _fit _to occupy my old charge at the agency." Lewis said in his usual humor as he ate another potato chip.

"We are taking her to a Red Shield secret facility for studying and protection." David said as he instructed the men that had stepped out of the van, where to place the cocoon.

They carefully placed the cocoon in the van as if it was a rare type of fossil, more than the sleeping body of a hibernating queen; the men entered the van once more and so did David and Lewis.

"Kai, the Chief is in town, come tomorrow afternoon, we need to talk about, 'time.'" said David as he handed Kai a business card with an unknown address and number. The van left, and Kai returned to Omoro in his old motorcycle, where and angry Mao and his two nieces will be waiting for him. By the time he got there, Mao was outside, wearing her usual angry look.

"Kai! Where have you been?! You know this is the third time in a row you disappear at the middle of the night!! Do you?? Do you Kai?" Mao said as they entered Omoro and Kai collapsed into a chair watching the business card David had just given him," Kai are you listening?"

"Sorry love, I promise I will tell you the next time." Kai's eyes fixed upon the little white paper.

"Kai, sorry I didn't mean to yell at you, but you worry me. . ." Mao's voice lowered, and she placed her arms around Kai's shoulders, "What is that?"

"Hmm? What? This?" said Kai showing the address to Mao," David wants me to meet Joel to talk about _time_."

"The Red Shield again, what do they want this time? Could it be weapons or maybe another chiropteran hunt?" Mao nagged leaving the business card on top of the bills and some other papers.

"Mao, this is serious, they took Saya's cocoon to a secret facility," Kai said taking the card from the pile of papers, "I think they might want to wake her up again, like in Vietnam."

"Saya, Saya, Saya, it's always about Saya," Mao complained as she served four glasses of orange juice,"Kai, if you hadn't married me, I would have thought you care more about her than about me."

A cold air filled the room in the warm morning, nothing was heard, only the sound of the birds chirping outside and the sound of the frying pan where bacon and eggs where been prepared. The moment seemed to last for ever, but for Kai's luck, the silence was interrupted by the footsteps of both of his nieces.

"Morning Kai!!" greeted a hyper-active five-year-old of blue eyes as she drank a glass of orange juice, "Morning Aunt Mao."

"Morning . . . Uncle Kai and Aunt Mao . . ." a sleepy five-year-old of red eyes said as she sat on a chair, placing her face on the cold wooden table.

"Morning Aoi, morning Aki", said both Mao and Kai in a semi-perfect choir.

A still angry Mao served her nieces and husband bacon and eggs, and placed some toast in the middle of the table, without a word she left the room.

Kai watched Aki and Aoi eat, they were both wearing school uniforms, he couldn't help but to think about Saya and Diva when he saw them; he smiled weakly and started eating, even tough he didn't have much of an appetite. He stopped, watching the clock move slowly, every minute that passed by seem to go slower, but out of the blue his trance was interrupted by the voice of one his younger brother daughter's.

"Kai, Aunt Julia is taking us to school today!" said Aki, "Bye, Kai!"

"Take care, bye. ", said Kai as he ride his motorcycle and went to the address David gave him earlier that morning.

It was an abandoned warehouse, he had seen this place many times before when he was young and used to get involved in street fights, but now it was rusty with tall grass growing around it. He parked the motorcycle and stepped into the warehouse, just to find out that it was locked; he hit the door and screamed, "Come on! It's me, Miyagusuku Kai!"

He kept doing that for an hour, until a voice behind him said, "It seems you got here earlier, or am I late for my own meeting?" He knew this voice, it was Joel's; he turned around, facing Joel, David, Lewis and Julia.

"Kai," said Julia's tender voice," I'm glad to see you here, we need to talk, it's about Saya"

Kai stood motionless for a second, and then followed the rest into the empty warehouse, were they stepped in the middle of a platform.

"Is this where you are keeping her?" said Kai as he looked around.

"No, we are keeping her here," David say as the platform was lowered into an underground facility," in the Red Shield Research Center"

Kai was surprised, by the looks of the place, it resembled a hospital more than a research center: everything was white and chrome, with a touch of neatness here and there.

"When did you build this?" said Kai as they started walking through the hallways and into the conference room.

"As soon Saya started hibernating" Lewis answered as he shut the door behind him.

"Please, take a seat," said Joel in his usual calm voice," as you know Kai, Saya must sleep for at least another twenty-five years, to complete her thirty year hibernating cycle."

"Or at least that's what we used to think, until we faced a new . . . problem", David say with uncertainty.

"Kai, we believe the reason Saya stood awake for so long, after her powers have been drained, was . . ." the blond doctor said holding Kai's hand, "is that Saya is pregnant."

For about the fourth time in a day, Kai was speechless, now remembering the time at the airbase when Diva told him about Riku's babies, now he faced the fact that his baby sister was pregnant with the babies of God knows which of Diva's former Chevaliers.

"When did this happen? Which Chevalier did this?" the reddish haired man said as he impatiently stands up from his chair.

"Kai, what it's important right now, is what we are doing with Saya," Julia said trying to calm down Kai," we cannot let her sleep for another twenty-five years."

Kai looked at Julia as some soft and quiet tears dropped down his face, "But, wasn't Saya's mother hibernating when she was pregnant from her and Diva?"

"Yes, but eventually the babies feed up the mother's blood and nutrients," Julia said looking at her husband," so if we let the babies feed up of Saya's blood, when its time for her to wake up again it could be too late."

Kai stormed out of the room and into the hallways of the research center, just to find Saya's cocoon in a laboratory table, being prepared to wake her up.

"Kai, tell us the time and we will wake her up," said Joel's voice, "her future, but mostly the future of her children, is in your hands now . . . "

Kai again stood speechless, this time watching Saya's cocoon in the laboratory table; he never thought this day will come so early, and neither did he thought that it would be him to choose the future of a race.

For Kai Miyagusuku, this day had been a bucket of cold water, snapping him into the reality he feared the most, seeing Saya loose control, just as she did many years ago in Vietnam.


	2. An Unexpected Awakening

**Chapter 2: "An Unexpected Awakening"**

_-" Inside, it rests a crimson princess, a queen of eyes red as blood, hair dark as darkness itself and skin white as marble. To many a friend, to others a sister or a lover, but to some others, a threat. She rests for thirty years, until the time comes for her to wake up . . . or at least that's what it's said."_

A strong smell of iron filled the observation room; it was blood, the crimson nectar Chiropterans live on and appreciate so much for them to have fought endless battles for it. As blood packages were being prepared for the "awakening transfusion", doctors, who were covered from head to toe, entered the room; their covered faces did not reflect the excitement they felt inside. Everything was ready for Saya's awakening; they just needed one simple word of approval from Kai's mouth to begin the process. But he stood silent, watching as how the cocoon lay over the cold, metallic laboratory table, ready to be opened and examined. He couldn't bear watching how she was being treated as an experiment, or as if she was the clue to the mystery of evolution, he couldn't.

In his mind he thought: "Doesn't Saya look human? Doesn't she feel as we do? Chiropteran or human, she is alive . . . she is alive!"

These words echoed in his head as long as he watched her, but he closed his eyes and murmured, tears falling down his cheek, "I can't do this, but if I don't, Saya and her babies will die." He was now facing a predicament that made his head and heart ached. He grabbed a chair and sat, remembering all the things they have fought for so long, the places and people they have met, but most important, the new generation that was growing and the one that was about to be born.

He could hear the voices of the doctors and surgeons talking, all of them wondering about what lies inside that cocoon, but two of them interested him the most:

"Sir, do you know what is inside?" said a young and naïve intern.

"Inside," the senior doctor sighed," it rests a crimson princess, a queen of eyes red as blood, hair dark as darkness itself and skin white as marble. To many a friend, to others a sister or a lover, but to some others, a threat. She rests for thirty years, until the time comes for her to wake up . . . or at least that's what it's said." said the most experienced doctor as he passed a scalpel to his pupil.

Without even Kai noticing, David pulled a chair right next to him, silence filled the atmosphere and a cold air was felt; at first it was hard for anybody in the room to talk, but David broke the silence talking softly.

"Kai, are you sure you understand the meaning of the situation?" David said tenderly.

"Yes, I am sure I can understand the meaning of the situation!" Kai yelled scaring the young intern he had heard before. He made him cut, even through the thick gloves he was wearing.

Three blood droplets fell into the cocoon, making it beat faster and faster by the minute as if it needed more blood. It just needed three droplets of the blood from an innocent to make it work. Alarms and sirens, just like the ones you hear during a fire drill, where heard all over the place, and doctors rushed all over the research center, making the hallways look more like a highway in rush hour.

"What's going on Julia?" David asked his wife as she rushed into the observation room.

"Saya," the blond doctor said panting," she's waking up!"

"How come?" Lewis asked, as he was eating some sort of snack.

"We are not sure," said Julia as she stopped for a second," but we think the blood from the intern triggered a chain reaction, which made her somehow 'conscious.'" the doctor said as she caught her breath and entered the observation room.

Chaos and disorder ruled the place, but Kai stood with his eyes closed until a young doctor waked him from his day dreams.

"Sir," the young doctor addressed Kai," we have to ask you to leave the room."

He didn't answer nor he looked at who was talking to him; he just wanted to stay there, to be when Saya woke up, but the doctor insisted on him leaving.

"But what about Saya, will she be ok?" an altered Kai asked Julia.

"Please, Kai leave!!" the blonde doctor yelled as she showed Kai the way out. His eyes widened, he had never seen Julia yell before and neither did he had seen her mad.

He stood outside, doing nothing but waiting and watching where the real action was taking place. The time was running, and fast; but none of the doctors or surgeons knew what to do.

Saya's heartbeat increased, she was more alive than when she was awake; the cocoon had softened, so they proceed to do the only thing they could imagine: cut it open.

"Scalpel", asked the surgeon to his pupil.

"Here it is sir", said the intern as he handed it to his superior.

The surgeon grabbed the scalpel, even though his hand was shaking and he didn't know what could happen, he proceeded. He lowered his hand and in a clean cut, the now soft cocoon was open. He left the blade aside and tried to remove the cocoon, but a hand grabbed his and wouldn't let him go.

'What's going on?" the surgeon asked," Why doesn't she lets me go?!"

The doctors tried to free the surgeon's hand, but it was useless, the strength she was using to hold the surgeon's hand was not human; you could have said it was literally crushing.

While the interns carefully removed the cocoon, they found the Chiropteran Queen awake. Her brown eyes were glowing red with anger and she was ready to fight. She stands up in the middle of an unknown place to her, full of surgeons and doctors, scared but at the same time angered. Kai, lost in his thoughts, reacts when he hears Saya's screams; without thinking it twice; he enters the room and calls, "Saya!!"

She hears her name and looks around; she has freed the surgeon's hand but was now crushing Kai's. Her glowing red eyes look deep into Kai's eyes, everything turns blurry to her and she faints, falling into her brother's arms.

As she opens her eyes in the middle of the cold night, she founds herself lying in a soft bed, not the warm and cozy cocoon she used to sleep in during her hibernation. A thousand thoughts running through her mind keeps her from sleeping again, she stands up from her bed, and sees herself in a mirror; her short raven hair has grown long, and so did her belly. Tears felled from her brown eyes as she puts her hand in her stomach, feeling the beat of the new life inside her.

"How did this happen?" she asked her own reflection, "Has the thirty years gone so fast?"

"Oh, dear, what a lovely picture!" a queer and familiar voice said.

She wiped the tears from her face and looked around, she had heard that voice before, but still it was just her in the room, and nobody else.

"I might be hallucinating, he's dead," she repeated to herself," I killed him with my own hands."

"Darling, I can assure you I am not dead," the queer voice called behind her, and yet again she turned around, but as before nobody was there. She opened the faucet and washed her face to calm her nerves; she watches herself once again in the mirror, and sees the reflection of the Chevalier she thought was dead.

"Nathan Mahler", said Saya as she turned around to found Nathan sitting in her bed.

"In the flesh," said the queer Chevalier with a sarcastic tone.

"How can you be alive?" the queen asked.

"How can you be awake so early?" said Nathan laughing.

Touché, it was true that he was alive, but she still didn't know how she could be awake so early. With this in her mind, she carefully approached the bed and sat in the nearest chair.

"What do you mean early?" the queen asked, but the Chevalier laughed at her question and did not answer,"What are you doing here anyways?"

"Can't I say hello to the mother of the babies of one of my dear, departed and beloved brothers?" said Nathan as he stands up, taking the cup of blood that was placed in the night table for Saya to drink.

"What do you know about this?" Saya asked ferociously.

"More than what you could ever imagine, my dear queen." Nathan said as he drinks a sip of the blood in the cup.

Saya's eyes started glowing red once again, but this time the cup that Nathan was holding in his hand cracked.

"I can see you have learned a trick or two during your short sleep," Nathan said laughing, "but still is nothing compared to what your late mother could do when she was pregnant."

Nathan's commentary made her stop for a second, but still she asked her self how Nathan could have ever met her late mother, a mummified Chiropteran that lived about two or maybe even three centuries ago.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she said confused," Did you met my mother?"

He smirked but, but no answer came out from his lips, making Saya even more irritated.

The white opal moon that could be seen from the window in her room made her glowing red eyes brighter and as Saya's eyes glowed more, the cup in Nathan's hand broke, making it shatter in a rain of more than a thousand pieces of glass.

"You surprise me dear," Nathan said as he shook off the tiny pieces of glass from his shirt, "I really was not expecting that."

"What do you know about my mother and about the Chevalier that impregnated me?" she asked once again, but as before the former Chevalier laughed, but this time his laugh was louder and harder.

"Darling, I don't expect you to remember your beloved mother," he said trying not to laugh, "but, how could you forget the Chevalier that impregnated you? That is an offense to the father of your children."

Suddenly the door started to open and the usual Red Shield members entered the room, but this time the former Chevalier disappeared leaving a small puddle of blood and a floor covered in tiny pieces of glass.

"Saya are you ok?" her worried brother asked as he saw her sitting in a chair near her bead.

"Yes," she said as she breathes deeply.

"Saya," Joel said," welcome back."

"Thank you very much sir" she said.

That night, Saya Otonashi had experienced the most strange and unexpected awakening of her life as a Chiropteran Queen.


	3. An Aftermath of Questions

**Chapter 3: "An Aftermath of Questions and Answers"**

_-"There are so many questions for us to ask, and so many little answers; and yet there is even less time to answer those questions. In the process this can, no is, confusing, but at the end it all makes sense."_

As everything in this world does, changing from place to place, never being the same even in the most dullest and monotonous situations; so did the cold night with an opal moon, changing into a warm morning with a fiery sun. That morning everything looked peaceful, the sky was clear, the sun was shining and the waves gently hit the shore; this made one of those mornings you just want to lay in bed, just thinking and at the same time forgetting everything about the night before. And so did her, lying in her bed with her eyes closed, even though she was awake since the sun raised; feeling the warm breeze of a summer day, but she couldn't for stay in bed for much longer.

She slowly opened her eyes, scanning and inspecting carefully every detail in her room; this time everything seemed much clearer and visible than what she had seen by night. She saw the bathroom's door; the sofa with some clothes that had been left for her; and the chair and the night table where once had been the cup of blood. But now the floor was clean, no broken glasses or blood stains, or any other remaining proof that could tell that the events of the night before actually happened was visible at a simple glance.

"Was Nathan's visiting just a dream?" Saya repeated to herself as she got up from her bed, slowly putting her feet on the cold floor.

She knew the answer to that question, she was conscious and at the moment everything seemed so real for her; from Nathan's laugh to every single one piece of broken glass in her bedroom's floor. She could remember clearly what Nathan had said and yet there was a small and practically invisible blood stain to the common eye that confirmed that the cup broke spilling blood in her bed. But still everything seemed as one of those bizarre moments, when you feel it's more of a dream than an actual event, either because everything seems so unreal or you cannot believe what actually happened. The confusion made her head hurt, but she couldn't stop thinking about the reaction of her friends and family seeing her awake in the middle of the night, while the floor was covered in pieces of broken glasses and blood stains:

As Joel welcomed her back, Kai barefooted stepped closer to where Saya was sitting.

"Kai wait, there are broken glasses in the floor!!" Saya warned her brother as he was about to step into the glasses. Everybody then watched where he or she was standing, luckily nobody was hurt.

"What happened here, are you hurt?" the blond American asked to the queen.

"You look worried." Julia said looking at Saya.

"I am fine, but there is something I am worried about." she replied.

"If it's about the babies, I can assure you they are just fine." Julia said with a nervous tone.

"It's not about that," the queen sighed, "last night, just before you entered, I saw Nathan in my bedroom. He made me break the cup of blood in my night table."

Both Kai and Joel looked surprised, they were that night at the Metropolitan Opera House, when Saya with her katana had cut in half Diva's last remaining Chevalier; and by their faces you could easily tell they didn't believe Nathan was still alive.

"But you killed him, how can this be possible?" the red haired man yelled.

A moment of silence filled the darkened room, which was only lighted by the opal moon.

"We will discuss that and other things later in the morning, now Saya has to sleep." Joel said as everybody walked out of Saya's bedroom.

A knocking sound stooped her flashback, and returned her to reality.

"You may come in." she said as the door opened.

"Otonashi-san?" a young Japanese nurse asked, "Are you ready for your transfusion?"

Saya nodded and two nurses entered the room with an IV and some food for later on, as the nurses prepared the transfusion she laid in her bed once again.

"This brings back memories." she said smiling as if the blood transfusions brought her some comfort in the confusion she was currently facing.

"Why do you say that Otonashi-san?" the same nurse asked the queen.

"Because some years ago, when I was in high school; I used to get a lot of blood transfusions." she said with a smile as she looked at the window.

"That's good to know," the nurse replied her also with a smile" by the way Otonashi-san your brother told us to bring you a lot of food for you eat, is the food enough?"

Saya blushed, it was embarrassing for her to being asked about food by some stranger; but still she could see that Kai had not forgotten how much does she usually eats.

"It's ok," she said as she looked into the nurse's name tag,"Ritsuko."

The transfusion was over by then, both nurses bowed and left the room; leaving Saya alone while she ate the food Kai had gently instructed the nurses to leave her. As she finished her breakfast, she saw something she had not noticed before: a note. The note, which was on top of the clothes that had been laid for her, it was written on a pink paper, and read:

"Saya, here are some clothes prepared for you, get dressed and go to down the hallway to the library. Everybody will be waiting for you. Don't be late, we will start the meeting at 12 p.m. Joel"

She then left the note aside and watched the clock, it was almost noon; if she hurried she might be lucky and get in time; she then dressed as quickly as she could and walked down the hallway and into the library. The library was huge, full of tall bookshelves and long never ending hallways that went as far as you could see.

She followed the familiar murmurs and voices at the end of the main hall, and then she found them all friends and family sited around a large oval table.

"You are just on time," the chief of the Red Shield said as he watched his pocket watch," we where just waiting for you, Saya. Please take a seat."

Saya did as she was told so, and took the only place left in the table, just between her brother and a now somehow aged Okamura.

"Saya is surprising for us to have you back so early. Do you know why?" Joel asked.

"Yes sir," Saya answered," because as I can see it's still early for me to wake up. Am I right?"

"Is not only that Saya," said the blond doctor." It's because you are pregnant. But I guess you have noticed by now. Right, Saya?"

This time she only nodded and did not spoke.

"Do you feel ok, you look paler than usual." Julia said concerned.

"I am ok, it's just I have too many questions on my mind." Saya said

"There are so many questions for us to ask, and so many little answers; and yet there is even less time to answer those questions. In the process this can, no is, confusing, but at the end it all makes sense." Okamura said as he lean back on his chair closing his eyes.

"Saya he's right, we are here to support you and help you. Remember we are your family and most of all we are your shield. " Joel said in a fatherly tone.

"So feel free to ask, and we will try to answer you." Julia said reassuring Joel's words.

For a moment the murmurs had stopped and now everybody was facing her, at first it was somehow uncomfortable and strange but she nodded again and then looked around, seeing everybody's smiling faces. She noticed how in such little time everybody had aged or changed in someway, and she remained as an eternal sixteen-year-old; but inside she sure felt different, because now she was going to be a mother, somehow and someway she was a mother.

"Uhm," Saya said uncertainly," do you know who is the father?"

"We hoped you could tell us that." Julia said, as the murmurs started again.

"Well I don't remember being raped by any of Diva's Chevaliers" the queen said embarrassed, and then looked at her brother's angry face.

"Saya," the female doctor said," we need to remove the cocoons from your womb, as soon as possible."

"Still there are other questions we need to answer," David interrupted his wife, as Kai got up from his chair, bothered by the conversation, "like the fact of Nathan being alive."

"Maybe her blood lost its power after she killed Diva?" Okamura proposed.

"Or maybe Nathan was not Diva's Chevalier to begin with." the queen said in a low voice.

"What do you mean?" Joel asked concerned.

"Last night, when he entered my room," Saya said looking around," he claimed to have met my and Diva's mother when she was pregnant."

Kai looked at Saya, he just as everybody else in the room, he was amazed by her words; nobody could believe what she had just spoken few moments ago.

"Do you mean he was alive back then?" Okamura asked.

"He didn't answer me how." Saya said with disappointment.

"Did he tell you anything else?" Joel said even more concerned.

"He told me how I could forget the father of my children, one of his "brothers'." Saya said still disappointed but this time she felt the beating of her babies.

A loud beep was heard all over the room, this was a clear signal that the meeting was now dismissed. Everybody got up from their chairs and waited for Joel to leave the room; as everybody waited Saya walked to where Kai had been standing for almost all the meeting.

"Kai, are you ok?" Saya asked concerned about her brother.

"Yes I am ok." Kai said as they exited the library, "It's just as Okamura said we have too many questions we cannot answer in time."

"Well what about if we eat at Omoro and that way I can meet my nieces." Saya said smiling and trying to cheer him up.

Kai smiled back and agreed, "It sound fine to me, along as you help me."

"Why should I?" the queen asked.

"Because with you, Aki and Aoi, I have to cook like six times more what dad cooked for the four of us." Kai complained and Saya laughed.

This aroused more confusion, realizing that as more time passed, the more questions they had about Chiropterans; and true or even false, this revealed how little did the Red Shield knew about them and how much did Nathan knew about her.


	4. An Undenaible Truth

**Chapter 4: "An Undeniable Truth"**

_-"Now that I see it, it is hard to say that this is not real; but deep inside of me there is something that refuses to believe it is, after watching how a part of me almost vanished."_

The voices that flooded the library moments ago had now silenced, returning the library into a silent and sacred sanctuary a library is supposed to be. And the same way the library was now silent, the research center was deserted, low in activity and filled with a strange air of laziness, almost perfect for a quick and unnoticed runaway. The footsteps of the brother and sister were heard, but there was nobody that could hear those steps, making them almost unnoticed. This filled the red haired man with uncertainty about what he was doing and making him stop to think about it before it was too late to turn back.

"Kai? Is everything ok? Why are we stopping?" said the raven haired queen as she noticed her brother had stopped just a few steps away from the elevator.

"Hmm? It's just that," he said,"I feel that I'm kidnapping you."

His answer had been absolutely sincere, but the response from his sister was an even more sincere and innocent laugh.

"Why are you laughing Saya, I'm serious." Kai said with a grin.

"So am I. I hardly believe David or Joel would lock me or you, so I could not see my own family! " Saya said still laughing as they got into the elevator.

As the door of the elevator closed, Kai took a deep breath and sighed; remembering the days they spent on quarantine, as requested by Collins, while they were looking for Saya.

The elevator slowly advanced to the ground level, and then its doors opened to a "backdoor" of the abandoned warehouse that led to an unattended garden with tall grass and a big tree that made a dreamy picture of a perfect summer day in the city of Koza. It had been almost six years now that Saya had not spent a day in the outside world and had not enjoyed of the pleasure of a summer day at the city she had grown fond of as to call it her hometown. She covered her eyes from the sunlight as she stepped out of the elevator, and waited for Kai to bring his motorcycle as she sat at the shadow of the big tree in the lonely garden.

"After so long, I almost forgot what was like a summer day in Okinawa." Saya said deeply as Kai helped her ride his motorcycle.

"We can make a stop at the beach if you like so, it is still early." Kai proposed and Saya smiled what Kai took as a yes.

They drove from the abandoned warehouse to the beach, Saya looked excitedly at the city of Koza, seeing if in her short hibernating period something had changed, but it was impossible for Kai to tell and for her to notice. They stopped at the beach, for Saya and Kai this brought back a lot of memories from those careless days, before she could remember who and what she really was and before he was even involved in this complicated mesh of the Chiropteran world. She took her shoes out and felt the sand beneath her feet and walked towards the sea to feel the fresh water from the waves that crashed in the shore.

"This feels so good, the water it's still cold." Saya said as she watched her brother sitting in the steps. "Come on Kai!! You were the one of the idea!"

"I pass, these days I come almost every day," he said as he watched Saya enjoying a day at the beach, "with Aki, Aoi and Mao."

"That's right, Mao. You married her didn't you?" Saya asked as Kai blushed lightly.

"Yeah, about four years ago; actually it was a year after she returned from the Middle East with Okamura." Kai answered.

"So I would be expecting to find her at Omoro then?" she asked again.

"I. . . guess it's probable." Kai said as he remembered what Mao had told him about disappearing and not letting her know. "We need to go, Mao will be waiting."

"Ok." Saya answered as she put her shoes back on and rode on Kai's bike.

As they drove through the now busy streets of Koza, and then into the alleys in the suburbs, Kai felt as if the time was fading and was urgent for him to be at Omoro; but for his surprise the street where Omoro was located was empty and deserted, and the restaurant closed and with a piece of folded paper in the door. The motor's rumbling stopped and Kai and Saya stepped down from the bike, as he parked the bike, Saya reached the door and carefully took the piece of folded paper, it was a note, from Mao. Saya handed it to Kai, because she felt it was rather directed to him not to her; and then he read it out loud:

"Dear Kai," he read,"since lately you have been disappearing I diced to close the restaurant for the day and take the day off. I took Aki and Aoi with me; I'm at my parents' I know where you have been this past few days, we'll be back for dinner. Love, Mao."

"Look there is a P.S." Saya said as she took the note from his hands and read: "P.S. I expect the dinner to be ready when we are back."

Kai starred at Saya, doubting that the note actually said that about dinner, he took it from her hands and read it again reassuring what Saya had just said; he found it not surprising after he read it again, after all it had been Mao who wrote the note. Kai unlocked the door and he entered behind Saya. She looked around to see if Kai had bothered in even changing Omoro just a bit, but it was exactly the same as the night before her five year sleep, even the smallest particle of dust over the counter was still there, for her Omoro was home.

"I guess I should start preparing dinner." Kai said as he watched the clock, it was 6 p.m.

"I will help you, if you like." Saya said as she passed her fingers over the dusty counter.

"You know I didn't really meant that back at the library." He said trying to stop her.

"I know, but I do want to help you." She replied with a smile.

The afternoon passed really quickly as they cooked and the room filled with the scents of the food they were preparing and the spices they were using. They really did not notice it was almost 8 p.m., until the door flung open, with the footsteps of two impatient little girls and their hungry aunt.

"We are home!" Mao cheerfully announced.

"Hello Kai!!" Aki said as she ran from the door to the living room.

"Hello Uncle Kai." said an absentminded Aoi, watching the mysterious raven haired lady that was standing in the kitchen preparing the dinner.

"Come on Aoi!! The program is starting!!" Aki yelled to her sister.

"Going!!" she replied as she wondered who was that lady and why she felt so "familiar".

"I wanted…" Kai's words and intentions were interrupted as they left the kitchen.

"It's ok Kai, we have plenty of time to meet," she said as she laughed "you'll introduce us at dinner."

"Otonashi, it is glad to have you back; but this early, I thought you will take longer." Mao said as she leaned over the counter and watched Kai and Saya finish preparing the dinner.

"It's good to see you too Mao." Saya said as she turned to see Mao.

"I see you are expecting, when should we be expecting to see your daughters?" Mao asked.

"Well, I don't really know, but I hope is anytime soon." she replied gently.

The dinner was now ready, so they as a family sat together at the table and ate; Kai and Mao sat in front of each other, so did the twins and Saya sat at the end of the rectangular table.

The twins looked at Saya and then back at each other, they noticed that Saya looked quite familiar to them in many different ways but they only ate and did not asked until Kai, saw it was now the precise moment to introduce Saya to the twins.

He cleared his voice and dropped his chopsticks, suddenly silence filled the Miyagusuku house, and everybody stopped eating and paid attention to Kai.

"Aki, Aoi, as you could see, we," he said as he watched both twins, "have a special guest with us tonight. I want you to meet, your Aunt Saya; she is your mother's sister."

The twins looked at each other and then at Saya, they watched her closely for a moment and realized the reason why, Saya looked familiar to them in many ways.

"Nice to meet you, Aunt Saya." Both girls said in choir.

"You should be Aki. Am I right?" Saya said as she looked to the girl with eyes like hers.

"Yes, we both share the same eyes, auntie Saya!!" Aki replied cheerfully.

"And you," she said as she looked at Aoi, who at the moment was hiding her face to avoid blushing, "are Aoi. You look so much like your mother."

Aoi then looked at Saya, interested in knowing more about her and her family.

"Auntie Saya, what was our mother like?" Aki asked.

A piercing look came from Kai, like telling Saya only to tell the "basics" about Diva and not anything related to the Chiropteran wars she faced for almost a century. Saya looked back at Kai, asking him to relax; she was aware of that, but she also knew that sooner or later they will have to know the truth about their mother.

"Your mother, Diva, looked much like me, only that she had piercing blue eyes like Aoi, and a beautiful opera voice." Saya said as she continued eating.

Both girls looked amazed at Saya's description of her mother, what made them even more interested, even so that made Aoi's shyness disappear for a moment.

"Aunt Saya, do you like pink roses?" Aoi asked shyly.

"Yes I do, but why the question?" Saya replied.

"Because, one time when we visited you; while you were sleeping, we found one with a blue ribbon on the steps of the crypt. And uncle Kai told us it was for you." Aoi answered shyly.

Saya dropped her chopsticks and looked confused and concerned at Kai.

"I need to show it to you." Kai said as they both left Omoro and drove to the Miyagusuku family crypt. The car stopped and they climbed the stairs to the mausoleum, where they saw the pink rose with the blue ribbon resting in the steps lighted by the white opal moon. Saya walked to the stairs and carefully picked the rose.

"Now that I see it," she said taking a deep breath," it is hard to say that this is not real; but deep inside of me there is something that refuses to believe it is, after watching how a part of me almost vanished"

"Saya, he's alive, or how else can you explain the rose?" Kai said softly.

"I can't deny he's alive, it's just hard to accept after that night at the MET." she replied. "But now, I have to find him Kai, and fulfill _his_ promise, but no matter how much I try to remember what he said to me that night, it feels like it vanished."

"A promise?" Kai asked willing to help his sister.

"Yes, but now I cannot remember the promise!" Saya said as she bursted into tears.

"I guess David and the others should be expecting you at the center." Kai said as they walked down the stairs and entered the car. On the way to the center Saya held the rose near her chest as if it was an invaluable treasure.

This aroused a new concern in her. Haji, her companion, her loyal chevalier and her lover, where was he? And why when she tried to remember the promise it all looked blurry?


	5. Remembering What Was Forgotten

**Chapter 5: "Remembering What Was Forgotten"**

_-"Deep inside of you, those "vanished" memories lay as eager prisoners waiting for you to free them. The only thing you need to remember those moments is to find the key that seals them away. "_

The late night at the city of Koza was much like every other night at every other city; it was silent, with empty streets, lighted by the bright neon lights of the buildings and billboards and with a white opal moon over it. The way back to the center was long and silent, not even one word was spoken between them, the only sound that was heard was the sound of the engine running and stopping when they got to the warehouse. The late night and the moonlight created a game of lights and shadows that made it look like a place for a ghost hunt, rather than the secret location of a top secret underground facility. As the car stopped, Kai noticed Saya had been asleep for a while now, with the rose close to her heart and with tears on her white cheeks. As he stepped out of the car and opened Saya's door, he decided to carry her to her room, using the elevator from the "backdoor" rather than the main gate.

As he walked through the tall grass in the moon lighted garden, he noticed that her room was not that far below from the ground as he thought it was, as a matter of fact, the window in her room lead to a beautiful view of the garden. He pressed the button of the elevator, and entered, after descending a few feet the doors opened again, but this time into the dark and empty hallways of the center. He walked the halls until he found Saya's room in mere darkness and left her in her bed to rest after a day of strange surprises.

"Tomorrow will be another day." he said as he sighed and left the room.

The night was long and painful for her; it seemed she couldn't find a peaceful moment in her dreams, there for she was having a nightmare, but like every nightmare, it's all harmless fantasy, and it ends when you wake up in the middle of the night or in her case, in the morning. The alarm clock beeped, and she opened her eyes slowly, it was morning, and she was late for her appointment with Julia. She woke up unwillingly, Saya as every other, does not liked an appointment for an IV first thing in the morning. Her morning routine was faster than usual, bath, change clothes; brush her teeth and hair, and leave to Julia's wing. Now the halls seemed clearer than the previous days, full of light and of people working; and most of them not even realized that what they did day by day as part of their now daily routine, had involved them in the strange and complicated mesh of the unknown Chiropteran world. She walked through the medical wing, and stopped at the end of the hallway where Julia's office was, to her surprise the door was open and little and familiar voices where coming from the inside. She stepped in, and found her two nieces and another kid around Aki and Aoi's age; his hair was honey blond like David's and his eyes were grayish green like Julia's, Saya immediately thought he was Julia and David's son, who has not even been born when she went to her short hibernating period a few years ago.

"Aki stop moving or the IV will . . . "Julia said as her eye caught a glimpse of Saya's red dress, "fall. Morning Saya, it's good you remember your appointment."

"Morning, Julia, Aki, Aoi. And I guess your Julia's son, am I right?" she said looking at the blonde boy sitting on his mother's chair.

"Yes, Saya, he is David Robert. Last time you saw him he was not even born, has so many time passed since then?" Julia said as the twins laughed at the sound of Robert.

"Mom, I like to be called Robin, not Robert, not David or David Robert." he complained and then rested his head on the oak desk in Julia's office, and the rest just laughed.

Saya waited and saw how her nieces where having an IV, after all they where Chiropterans and they needed blood in order to survive; and she wondered what excuse will Kai and the others will be using to explain to so young children about what was going on and when will they plan to tell them what was _really_ going on. She sighed, and looked back at Robin who was playing with a pencil and still looked annoyed, then she looked back at her nieces Aki had stopped moving and Aoi was looking at the wall, trying to avoid Saya's sight. The morning moved slowly for her, until a knocking was heard, it was Kai.

"Knock knock" he said as he entered.

"Come in, the solution is almost over." Julia yelled as she stands up and both girls looked eager to leave and see their uncle.

"Hello little David, morning Saya" Kai greeted and Robin complained again, he hated to be called "little David", it just remained him how people would associate him with his father.

"Morning Kai." Saya greeted her brother with a sleepy voice.

"And, we are done. Kai can you take _Robin_," Julia said as she looked at her son, "I will pick him up later on the afternoon."

Kai nodded and took the three kids with him, after he left the room it was just Julia and Saya, it has been quite a time now since Saya had not attended an appointment with Julia; she prepared the solution and Saya laid down in the bed where Aki was a few moments ago.

"Saya, how are you feeling?" Julia asked with interest.

"Fine, I guess I missed the transfusions." she answered with a fake laugh.

"I mean, emotionally, I might be no shrink, but I can see you are worried." Julia said as she put the syringe in Saya's arm and connected the IV.

Saya hummed this time, and guessed Kai might have slip something this morning when he left the twins for the transfusions.

"Did Kai tell you then what happened last night?" she asked looking back at her doctor.

"As a matter of fact he did, and I am worried as well to see why those memories and events look blurry to you." the doctor answered politely.

"So now we are also talking about knowing who the father of my babies is?" she said angrily.

"Deep inside of you, those "vanished" memories lay as eager prisoners waiting for you to free them. " Julia said she took her glasses off and cleaned them, "The only thing you need to remember those moments is to find the key that seals them away."

"If so, what is the key we need to awaken those moments?" she asked now interested.

"It can be anything, a smell, a song, a picture, a place." The doctor answered as she removed the syringe from the queen's arm. "But I guess that might be harder than remembering."

Saya looked at Julia this time, and gave her smile. What would help her remember what it seemed vanished, the smell of the pink roses she liked, the song Haji used to play in his cello, the picture of them at the zoo in Bordeaux? A thousand thoughts like this came to her, some more important and relevant than others. She laughed and thought about buying meters of blue ribbons and eating grape jelly, but she realized it was not the best thing to remember those vanished moments.

Julia looked at Saya laughing and smiled, asking "Why are you laughing?"

"I thought about buying meters of blue ribbon." she said trying to hold her laughter.

"I am serious Saya; think about things that may relate to the moments and memories"the doctor said smiling, "and if that was the case, maybe you should consider buying cellos."

They both laughed for a long time; buying cellos, meters of blue ribbon, grape jelly and dozens of pink roses, which would not get Saya anywhere, but it, was rather fun to think about these items actually helping her in her quest for the memories. Their laughter continued for another while, until they were interrupted by a young intern who left some papers on Julia's desk and left as soon as possible. After the transfusion, the afternoon went faster, at least faster than the morning, but still, Saya's idea of fun was no where near to walk through the aisles of the library, seeing the huge collection of old, ancient and antique books that might have been similar to the ones Joel I used to read when he was young. She walked through the halls of tall bookshelves, thinking about what Julia said about finding the key. She grabbed a couple of books, books about the Metropolitan Opera House, books about music, about cellos, about France, anything that seemed slightly related and could help her; she sat on the big table where few days ago they had their meeting, and opened the books, it didn't took long for her to realize that these books where taking her nowhere. She leaned her head on top of the open book, she was falling asleep, and said: "I don't see how researching in this library can be more helpful than buying roses."

"Neither does me, dear." a familiar voice said sarcastically,

"Hmm? Am I dreaming again?" she said as she raised her head trying to know where the voice came from. "Or is he actually real this time?"

"I don't know why you are calling me imaginary, if I am as alive as you are." the voice said louder but this time sounded quite offended rather than its previous cheerful tone.

"Go away, I am trying to rest." she said as she closed her eyes once again.

"As I told you before, I am no product of your imagination," the voice said louder, "so you cannot make me disappear. Just open your eyes my dear queen."

As instructed by the voice, she opens her eyes, and founds the blond queer chevalier holding a book about the operas of the last century. Saya could not believe her eyes, she assumed she was still asleep and that the person that was seated in front of her was actually an illusion or a dream, but it seemed quite too real for being an illusion and far too noisy and annoying for being a dream.

"You again, why do you always appear when nobody calls you." she said annoyed.

"Well excuse me, my dear queen." he said putting the book down, "But I thought I could pass by and see how you were doing with your "research", if that's what you call trying to remember what you forgot."

"What do you know about what _I_ forgot?" She asked interested.

"I know enough, to tell you that a book about New York's architecture of the late 1400's will not help you" he said as he changed seats in a blur. "And that your memories are not as hard to remember as you think they are."

She once again closed her eyes and put her face on the wooden table, slightly impressed by Nathan's assumption on what she was doing.

"But then, how can I be sure you are real and that you are not dead?" she said sleepy.

"Because, how many illusion or dreams do you know that can make and actual damage?" he said ferociously as he move from an edge of the room, to where Saya was seated and stabbed her shoulder with a dagger with a blue rose motif on it. Screams filled the room and as he always did, he vanished in a glimpse of an eye.

Pain ran down her body, and the only thing she could think about was why he could appear when nobody called him, and always with such an air of mystery making his "riddles" even harder to understand.


	6. Stabbing Thorn, Bleeding Rose

**Chapter 6: "Stabbing Thorn, Bleeding Rose"**

_-"How, can this be possibly happening? How can such weapon, which has once been a handy protector, hurt so badly such complex being? It feels as if a rose has been hurt with its own thorns."_

Darkness abruptly filled the room in the middle of the afternoon. Slowly, it covered her body with an indescribable feeling of pain, a pain that could not be endured by many. It is true that she had felt pain many times before and in many different ways and occasions, but this pain was beyond those others. It was a pain that could not be ceased easily, a pain that engulfed each and every part of her body, and still it only focused on her right shoulder. Although, it is indescribable for those who are enduring this pain, and hard to imagine for those who are not; it could be compared with the aching pain of one thousand thorns covering her shoulder. The room felt warm, every minute the temperature would rise, until it felt almost as hot as hell could possibly be, but her body was cold as ice, shivering with fear, anger and pain. Her limbs were shaking uncontrollably, maybe not as uncontrollable as a 75 –year-old man with Parkinson, but it was hard for her to get a grip. She slowly lifted her left arm and tried to pull out the dagger in her right shoulder, as the blade slowly leaved her skin she realized she was loosing a great amount of blood that was now all over the place; and that every time she pulled the dagger forward two things were happening: first, the pain would increase, and second, the blood will "crystallize" forming a scab over her shoulder trapping the dagger. It was useless to continue; she dropped her arm and stand from her chair, her legs shaking and her right arm numb from the constant pain. All her thoughts revolved around the pain she was feeling and what she could do. She looked around the empty library; it would not matter how loudly she could scream, nobody will be able to hear her. She tried to jump from where her chair was to the hallway, but she has already lost too much blood and her energy would die out if she would. She walked as fast as her legs could without running and held her numb arm close to her body; leaving a trail of blood behind her. As she walked down the hall, she realized, that the darkness that had few moments ago covered the room was not only the dusk and the nightfall, but her vision had begun to blur because of the blood lost. Her legs were still shaking a bit as she walked out of the library, and stood undecided in the middle of the hallway.

"What do I do?" she asked herself in weak and almost inaudible voice, "Do I walk to my room? Or should I walk to the medical wing?"

She decided, for what she thought it was better for her to do; she kept walking through the labyrinth-like halls of the research center, trying to find somebody, anybody that could possibly help her, but the halls were deserted once again. She kept walking, every step forward, was a step closer to cease her pain, but at the same time her legs, that by now had stop shaking, felt heavy as lead and hard as stone; meaning that the numbing pain had now spread through her legs.

"Maybe they are just cramps." she said as she kept walking.

As she got the end of the hall, she stopped at the last door at the left, and knocked softly. Few minutes later, the door opened, letting the warm lights and the cheerful voices from the inside, fill the hallway. She stood outside, her vision and hearing blurry, making it hard to recognize the person that had opened the door.

"Wha… Saya, you are bleeding, we need to take you to the ER immediately!!" the voice said.

"HELP!! Saya needs our help!!" a second voice screamed above the noise.

The cheerful voices ceased and converted into, desperate cries of pain looking for help. And as fast as you could possibly see, she was already in a stretcher and with an IV connected to her arm. The same sirens that had once filled the hallways of the complex a few days ago were now heard again and with them new, but strangely familiar voices surrounded her.

"Can you hear me? Blink if you can." one of the voices said and she did as said.

"At least, she can hear us." another voice called.

"Will she be ok?" a third voice asked worried.

"Yes, but we will need to take out the cocoons." the first voice said.

"And what about the babies?" a girly and high-pitched voice said.

"They will be fine, sweetheart." the first voice answered.

The voices kept doing this for a while, until they got to the emergency room, and half of the voices stopped. She was placed in a metallic table in the operating room, as the surgeons, entered covered with the same outfits as the time before. The nurses around her prepared everything for the operation. A tall figure among the surgeons approached the table where Saya was laying, and opened her belly as carefully as any skilled surgeon could do it, he placed the scalpel aside and carefully pulled out the cocoons and hand them to the nurse beside him. As he was about to make some stitches to Saya's belly he saw how fast the skin closed without leaving any mark or trace that she was ever opened. The numbing pain that invaded Saya's body a few hours ago had ceased thanks to the analgesics they applied on their way to the emergency room, but still the dagger was incrusted in her shoulder. The surgeons waited for instructions on what to do next, although it was obvious for them that they had to remove the dagger, however they respected Julia's authority and followed _her _orders and instructions, no matter what were those instructions or how long they took.

Outside the Red Shield watched after Saya, and Julia in angst walked the room thinking what to do next. As confusion and indecision was felt inside and outside the ER, a mahogany haired man enters the room, unusually startled by the current events.

"Julia, what it is going on?" the man demanded.

"Joel." the doctor said as she faced the man in the wheelchair,"Her vital signs are stable, we already removed the cocoons, and a scab of "crystallized" blood is trapping the dagger which with she was stabbed in her shoulder. "

"How, can this be possibly happening?" Joel asked startled," How can such weapon, which has once been a handy protector, hurt so badly such complex being? It feels as if a rose has been hurt with its own thorns."

The room broke into silence and everyone looked amazed at how startled Joel was, it was uncommon to see Joel this way, and not in his usual calm mood. Kai turn away from the window of the operation room, and look at Julia, he was interested at what Joel had said a few moments ago.

"What do you mean?" Kai asked interested.

"Well," she said as she took her glasses off, "as you know, Saya's body heals even with the minimum damage, but when the dagger was pulled out, as I might like to believe, a scab of "crystallized" blood started to form. The "crystallized" blood was a defense mechanism of her body, to some strange or unknown pathogen the dagger might have."

"So, you mean the blood crystallized as in the "thorn" in the Schiff" Kai asked confused.

"Perhaps, not that type of crystallization, but more like as a massive scab." she answered as she put on her glasses,"Like when you have a bruise."

"So what are you doing next?" he asked.

"We will have to remove the dagger with surgery." Julia answered.

"So be it." Joel approved.

As soon as Joel approved the order, Julia instructed the surgeons what they should do. They opened Saya's marble skin and carefully removed the blade. As they removed it, and hand it over to nurse that will take it to the laboratory, it could be seen a kind of rust, different from the one you usually find in old metals, but more as a kind of crystal covering the blade. The surgeons removed scab that had formed around her shoulder, and let her heal in a blink of an eye. After that numbing pain, it all seemed over, at least for a while. She was transferred to her room so she could recover, and the cocoons of her children where placed in a crib in beside her bed. Although, she was now in a better state, than the day before, she remained asleep, not in the kind of sleep she does when she hibernates, neither the one in which you can sleep for twelve hours straight after a long night; but more like the one patients do after a long surgery and they need recovery. It is true, that Saya does not need to much of a recovery sleep since, as one of her many gifts as a Chiropteran is to heal immediately after being hurt, but this time it was different. Meanwhile she would rest in her room, Kai would sit in a chair in the conference room, he fidgeted his fingers rhythmically in the large wooden table as they waited for the laboratory to have ready the results of what was in the dagger.

Out of nowhere he stopped with the tapping noises as he felt a hand over his shoulder, he knew someone was behind him, and he knew who he was, it was David.

"Kai, go home and have some sleep." he said as Kai turned around and faced him.

"I'm fine, besides the girls and Mao are sleeping in the room here at the center." he said as he took a sip of a coffee that he has been grabbing with his right hand.

"Anyways, you should sleep. If you are waiting for the results, they might take a while." David said as he sat in the chair besides Kai, "I'm telling you this as a friend, not as your superior."

"I'm not waiting, for the results," he said as he crushed the empty paper cup in his hand, "I'm actually waiting for Saya to wake up, I want to know who stabbed her."

"Well, I wouldn't take any chances, and say it was that queer looking Chevalier" a girly and high-pitched voice said as it stepped out of the darkness.

"Lulu, when did you come back?" Kai said in amusement as she saw the lilac haired Schiff girl across the room.

"Yesterday, visiting Kilibeth again was not as fun as I had imagined." she said, "Besides I heard about Saya's awakening and I decided to come as soon as possible."

"Why do you think Nathan is the one behind this?" Kai questioned.

"I don't know it is just a hunch." she answered frankly.

"Well, I have proofs beyond a hunch." Julia said as she entered the room with some papers in a manila envelope, which he handed to her husband.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he opened the envelope.

"As they inspected the dagger they found three important things," she said as a slide with photos of the dagger showed in the screen, "First, an engraving with the legend N. Mahler; second the "rust" is actually crystallized chiropteran blood; and third, the dagger has about three-hundred- and fifty years old."

As Julia said this, everyone looked shocked by the news that proved that Nathan could possibly be about four-hundred years old, and that the rust was not really rust.

"My theory that what happened to Saya, is that she suffered an allergic reaction to the crystallized blood." the doctor said as a zoomed picture of the dagger was shown.

"Would she be fine?" the lilac haired Chiropteran asked.

"She will, there is no potential harm; but she has just entered a comma state." the doctor answered as she looked back focusing her sight on Kai.

It is true that this is just the beginning of a new era, but one event after another proved that it would not be an easy task to find the missing pieces in Saya's memory puzzle.


	7. A Song to Remember

**Chapter 7: "A Song to Remember"**

_-"They both gave you something, expecting nothing in exchange, but the thought of having your love for the rest of eternity. I even dare to say those words are as exquisite as the best of songs. And yet, here we are again repeating the old story of the queen and her loyal chevalier."_

Ultramarine nights changed into crystal clear days, over and over again, waving a constant and never changing pattern. And silence, would rule the place, making easier to hear the rhythmic lullaby of monotony, which was made of all those common noises; that ranged from steps to bird chirping, all the way to clock ticking and people breathing, excluding their voices but not their sighs. It was a fact, that monotony of sound was what they faced day after day, after the imminent storm of reality that had transformed a peaceful sunny day into the aftermath of chaos, which always turned out to be disastrously confusing.

When they walked through the halls, when they went in and off guard, when they waited for the results, just to find that nothing has changed, at all; that lullaby, that bears its name pretty well, would be heard more than ever. Her hearth beat and breathing were no exception to the lullaby, as a matter of fact; they were the tempo that the lullaby solemnly followed, never changing, always constant.

Although, her status did not change, neither for good nor for worst, fresh pink roses were brought in her room every day, and people would come in and out of her room, always hoping for her to get well and wishing for the best. The swarms of people that would constantly step in and out of her room, would always wondered what mysteries, which had yet to be uncovered, laid in her dreams.

Yet, her dreams were no unsolved mystery, but the door to a complete and alternate reality, where time could flow as fast as lighting or as slow as human gait, but never the same, never constant, always changing. And always illustrated in a bright Technicolor and harmonized with beautiful songs and lullabies she new by heart, but no voices could be heard, only her own voice.

Behind her eyelids and deep in her mind, everything but the far end was in shadows. She was nowhere she could easily recognize, but yet it had something, unnoticeable what made it so familiar to her. She stood in the middle of darkness, and looked around; it was a hard task to find anything in that incredible absence of light, and yet she kept looking.

"Where am I?" she said as she stood in the middle of the darkened hallway, in a distant land she could now only visit in the wildest of her dreams.

"And what's that song?" she said, but no reply was heard, maybe the echo and the soft and almost unhearable lullaby she know she has heard many times before, were her only reply.

She had heard that song before, she knew it, she was absolutely sure about it; but there was something about it, its low tempo which impeded her from hearing it to perfection and to recognize its player. And even though the poor volume of the lullaby, her curiosity made her keep walking towards the light at the end of the hallway, and find the mysterious player behind that beautiful song. Every step she made was a step closer towards the light and the song, which became more audible as she walked. As the weak sun rays that danced at the end of the hall, lighted the floor, and then she realized she was standing over a large stone hallway and that at the end of if, there was what seemed as a large rose garden; or at least a courtyard covered in roses of all colors.

She stepped out into the light and realized that the garden seemed as if it had been untouched for many years, with its surrounding walls full of vines and moss, all weathered by the past of time. She passed her hand through the cold and stony walls, which left a funny and tickling feeling at her touch. Everything felt and seemed so real, so vivid, and at the same time so surreal, so dreamy.

"This place, this courtyard, it is so familiar." she said as she looked around, and as she did a fast moving shadow caught her eye.

"What was that?" she wondered as she now saw the speeding shadow more clearly.

"Who are you?" she yelled, but the shadow kept running through the courtyard.

No one answered, her question only bounced in the walls, making an echo of thousands of voices yelling the same question. At the same time the echo was heard, the beautiful roses turned into dried, dead ones and the shadow vanished from the garden and ran into the halls of the courtyard toward the manor.

She kept walking now at an incredible rate, it seemed as if she was almost running. As she tried to follow the shadow that moved across the courtyard and into the main house, her speed increased and her steps where no longer heard, only the song; which tempo has speed up as she reached the gates of the house. As her hand reached the green door knob at the front door, which might have been a bright copper-like gold many years ago, the song stopped for a moment, and the shadow moved rapidly behind her and into the house. She decided just to follow the shadow, wherever it might take her.

As she walked, and the song kept playing, and the lobby of what seemed like and old and maybe over decorated manor, it suddenly turned into the icy trail of a distant snowy forest. The chilling wind of the forest made her body shake with cold. The forest was covered in a white cloak, the ground was frozen, marking her trail and leaving visible footsteps of someone else besides her. Snowflakes were falling, melting in her fingertips, hair, and cheeks as she looked up at the sky, but she ignored them and tried to follow the footsteps; now ignoring the shadow.

As she followed the steps marked in the snow; she entered a rural village, with some tiny houses, which were also covered in white blankets. The song started to become faster and faster, and as it did, the shadow appeared behind the threes and into the forest; yet again she followed the shadow, running as fast as she could.  
"Wait!! Why are you returning to the woods??" she yelled, but it seemed that the shadow did not care returning to the woods.

After all the shadow had taken her there and it was its job to lead her back into the forest. As she followed the shadow back into the forest, she realized she was not on a different path, but the one she was before she entered the village.

In the distance she could see a large wooden bridge and the shadow approaching it. She followed it, and crossed the wooden bridge in the middle of the icy forest, which looked strong. She slowed as she crossed, hearing the lullaby and the sound of the wood crunching beneath her feet. As she took a step forward as crossing the bridge, with no apparent cause, it suddenly broke, making her fall in to the night of some place else far away.

The frozen bridge had melt into a soft, muddy ground; and the chilling breezes had changed into a warm, humid and musty weather. The weather now resembled the one you are much likely to found at a jungle with dense vegetation. She stand up, cleaning her naked legs and hospital robe from the mud, an realized she was in the middle of tall grasses, totally disoriented.

Now her only chance of finding her way out in the night was to follow the path of burning grasses, tiny bamboo huts, and tents from what seemed to be military camps. All which burned in the dark night with the intense glow of the orange fire.

It was not long that after walking a few steps through the tall grass, the shadow appeared again, and as it did the lullaby would speed up and mixed with the sound of the waves that crashed in the shore. She turned around to see to what place the shadow had now taken her and to look for the shore where the waves crashed, but the sound of waves ceased, and she found herself in a slightly lighted alley, with a pavement floor and large windows at both sides. Suddenly the music stopped and the only thing she could hear was the familiar voice of the queer chevalier, that by far she hated the most.

"They both gave you something, expecting nothing in exchange, but the thought of having your love for the rest of eternity." the queer voice said sighing, "I even dare to say those words are as exquisite as the best of songs. And yet, here we are again repeating the old story of the queen and her loyal chevalier."

"This can't be possible, I thought I could only hear my voice," she said as she walked through the pavement streets looking for the source of the voice. "And yet, I'm hearing him, again."

Her frustration could be easily justified, no matter where or when, she could hear his annoying queer voice even in her dreams. It seemed to be that he only would appear in the most awkward and inopportune situations.

But what she did not know was that in the world outside her own inner realm, the blond chevalier would sat in the darkness of her room, paying her a visit, an amazingly, undetected visit. Always a mystery how could he possibly pass unaware and undetected, by the higher standards of security the Red Shield was using, probably even higher than military or government together.

"So, farewell my queen." he said as his voice started fading, "Until we meet again, which is not that faraway of a visit, I might hope."

The same way the voice would appear, the same way it fades with the alleys, turning the pavement streets into the night of a city lighted by the neon lights of the many buildings that made up the city. As far as she knew, she stood in the rooftop of a building from were all the city could be seen with so beauty and perfection.

"Where has the shadow gone?" she asked herself, and as she did it appeared behind her rushing to the midnight sky and turning into a blue blur in the city night.

She took a step closer, intrigued by the blue blur; as soon as the blue blur jumped from rooftop to rooftop another blur appeared. It seemed as if they were fighting each other. She took a step closer, realizing the floor disappeared and she was falling. She closed her eyes, feeling an incredible rush of adrenaline as she fell; which made all those strange places quite comprehensible, together with thousands of other thoughts. She kept falling, her heart beat raised and so did the lullaby, both with an incredible volume and tempo; but as she was about to touch the ground, something warm embraced her, which at the same time it comforted her and made her heart beat faster. She slowly opened her eyes as she fell gently, realizing she was awake back in her room, panting and sweating. She looked around, it was morning again, and the rose with the pink ribbon was in a vase in the night table, together with a blue rose. Through her eyes one thousand million images passed in a fraction of a second, making nights and days of unclear events, now comprehensible.

The blue rose was the father, and alleys where the place.

It was all clear now, the key was found, the memories unlocked and the prisoners were once again free and absolved of the terrible fate they where confined to.


	8. Next Step, New Plans

**Chapter 8: "Next Step, New Plan"**

_-"This has become more confusing that what we thought it was; this can make sense but at the same time, it complicates things. If we want to settle things down, we need to remake our old plans and take new steps."_

The early morning sun rays poured through the curtains of her window, bumping in their way with the furniture. As they lighted the room, she felt as if the darkness of her mind and soul fell apart, and made everything clear and radiant as the current morning. Her red blood eyes scanned carefully the room; she saw the dozens of fresh pink roses that lay in the table, the crib with the cocoons of her children where the sofa had once been, and the vase in her night table with the two roses in it.

"Those, flowers," she said as she leant over to see them," I guess Nathan, left the blue one."

Seeing both roses together was now something meaningful, which aroused comfort and confusion; when she saw the blue rose, she looked at the crib, he actually gave his life for her when he was not even her chevalier and she could not address his feelings; and the she saw the pink rose, and remembered how Haji had devoted every day from his life since he was just twelve to her and her happiness. Her heart streamed with happiness and joy and yet, from each of her eyes a soft, innocent and silent tear fell, wetting her cheek.

"Haji . . ." she said in a soft whisper as the door started to open.

The door opened, and a familiar face appeared, it was Ritsuko, the nurse she had met a few days ago; she walked in, ready to start an IV and not even noticing Saya was awake. As she walked, through the room, she cleaned the table from the dried roses that were left several days ago, but it was until she approached the table when a glimpse of her eye caught that Saya was sitting in her bed. She then dropped her binder and the blood package as she saw her, and run out of the room looking for any Red Shield agent.

"Mrs. Julia, Mrs. Julia!! She is awake!!" the nurse cried through the hallways.

"I suppose that I have been out for a few days now." she said to herself.

"It's been almost two weeks." a girly voice said, and then a blur jumped to her bed.

"Lulu, it's so good to see you again." Saya said as the Schiff sat on her bed.

"I missed Okinawa." she said, joyful to see her again.

As the lilac haired Schiff saw the queen's face, she realized that something shinned in her eyes, and it was not precisely happiness, but something else; they where tears.

"Saya are you crying?" she said in a gloomy tone.

"Hmm? No, it's just. . ," she said as she cleaned her eye and heard noises from outside.

The noises from outside, were all familiar voices and could recognize they were all upset. Julia entered the room, being followed by Ritsuko who was begging for forgiveness about how she could not notice she was awake, and behind them Kai would enter upset, unlike Lewis, David, and Joel who will remain calm at the present situation.

"Ritsuko, it's okay." Julia said trying to calm down the young nurse, "Return to your guard, I can take care of everything."

"Okay, Mrs. Julia." Ritsuko said bowing and leaving the room.

Saya had a bewildered look on her face as she saw everybody enter the room. She sure was now used to see Kai react brotherly and protective in matters that concerned her safety, she sure was used to see how seven people could fit properly in her room every time something would happened to her; but still, it was all of a sudden to see them in her room early in the morning.

"Saya, are you ok?" Kai asked approaching her bed, "Of course you are. Since when have you been awake?"

"About fifteen minutes." Lulu said as she looked upon Kai's concerned face.

"Fifteen minutes." Julia mumbled under her breath as she changed the blood package.

Saya tried to flex her arm and stop Julia from putting the blood package, but her shoulder was still sore after the surgery and moving it even a bit, caused her a lot of pain.

"Saya, you should rest." the doctor said as she made her lay in bed, "And your still having the IV, I can't let you drink from the package."

A smile appeared on her face as Julia spoke those words. Lulu looked around her, and noticed a discussion was being made between the Red Shield heads. It was probably not the best thing to intervene, but it was interesting to hear what they where talking about.

"What are we doing now?" Kai asked concerned,"Saya still needs to remain in bed."

"Well, we could wait for her to get better or start looking for Haji." Joel proposed.

"But where do we start looking?" Lewis questioned.

Silence and thoughtful expressions filled their faces as they discussed what to do next, Saya then look at them, thinking if it was proper to interrupt them. Not much after, they started to argue again; brainstorming about possible places and fictile plans; but still, it seemed as if they were going to take forever analyzing their pre-existing plans for emergencies like the one they were currently facing. Their voices rose, never minding that Saya needed to rest.

"This has become more confusing that what we thought it was; this can make sense but at the same time, it complicates things." David said thoughtfully, "If we want to settle things down, we need to remake our old plans and take new steps."

They all looked at David as he spoke those words; none of them knew exactly what he was talking about, besides noticing that he meant their brainstorming was not being helpful.

"What are you talking about?" Lewis asked.

"All our current plans need coordinates, places, and information." Joel answered, "Something we do not have, at least not in a hundred percent."

Saya knew better, and knew something helpful they ignored; if they where to find Haji, she knew the place where he would most likely be. After that night, it all made sense, and she was ready to give it a try to see if it was true that she did remembered.

"I might know where he is." Saya spoke softly, as every one looked at her.

"Do you remember something?" Julia asked and she nodded.

"In the time I was out, I saw a lot of things. One of them was where Haji was." She said as she tried to sit on her bed,"At the Met, I remembered him whispering me something to my ear, after he convinced me to live. He just said me to go to the city of my first sleep."

Everybody looked amazed at the helpful and oblivious information she gave, everyone in the room had read Joel I diary, and knew what she meant; and still none of them even bother to think that he would most likely be at that city.

"I feel so obtuse. How could I did not thought about that before?" Joel mumbled.

"Don't feel that way, none of us did." Kai said gloomy and sat in a nearby chair.

"Anything else you would like to share with us?" Mao said as she entered the room, followed by her nieces and Julia's son.

"Morning!!" the twins yelled as they hugged Kai and jumped into Saya's bed, where they hugged Lulu and Saya too.

"Mao!! What the hell are you doing in here?!" Kai yelled.

"I woke up, and realized you left, leaving breakfast ready. A nice detail by the way." Mao said as she showed him a note he left. "And then I also realized, you might be here, so I decided to drop by, with the kids."

"Mao can't you see we are discussing matters of high priority here?" he asked.

"No, I only see you are not letting rest Otonashi." she said looking at Saya.

Saya looked at Mao, giving one of those "thank you for rescuing me" looks; but still she had been interrupted at the middle of giving some important information, when she stormed in. She hoped this was not one of those typical mornings with the Miyagusuku's, but she knew that she was most likely to be wrong; after all nobody found it strange, but normal.

"We will have plenty of time to _discuss_, when we are on board." Joel said rising his voice over Kai and Mao's screaming, "Now, I suggest getting your belongings ready."

"Are we going somewhere?" Mao asked but Joel just smirked.

"We?? No, you are staying!" Kai yelled.

"I'm not staying, you can't leave _us _alone." Mao said angered.

"This would be like last time, right?" David murmured to his wife.

"It seems it will." she murmured into his ear.

"Just leave everything ready and be at the airport at two o'clock." Joel said as he left the room, being followed by Julia, David, Robin, Lewis, and Lulu.

The room was quieter, but Kai, still angry, looked at Mao who was now braiding Saya's long hair, never minding their previous fight. Aki and Aoi looked at their aunt, exited about leaving Okinawa for the first time.

"Mao, you are still staying. I don't want to loose you. " Kai said as he held his head in his hands."Neither do I want to risk the twins."

"Kai, this will not be like last time." Saya pleaded.

"I know." he sighed, "But there is still Nathan. Who may I recall; injured you gravelly."

Saya's arm ached in guilt as she heard Kai's words. It might have been true, but she knew it would not be, like the last time.

"I know, but Nathan hopes to meet me again." she said softly.

"What makes you think that?" Mao asked and she pointed at the blue rose.

"Damn!!" Kai yelled, "How can he always infiltrate the center without us, noticing?"

"Good question. Everything is ready Mao." Lulu said as she leaped into Saya's bed.

Kai just looked at Mao, wondering what Lulu meant, and asked: "Lulu?"

"I asked her to close Omoro, and leave a sign at the door." Mao said.

"I guess, there is no way back once you left everything ready." he sighed resigning.

"Exactly." Mao murmured under her breath as Lulu laughed.

The alarm clock on the night table marked twelve thirty, still enough time to get to the airport. They all sat in silence for a moment, until the twins started to giggle.

"Aunt Saya?" the red eyed twin asked, "Where are we going?"

"Yes, auntie, where are we going?" Aoi also asked with excitement.

"Well, we are going to the "city of lights"." Saya answered and her nieces looked at her perplexed about what she meant.

The alarm clock marked one o' clock now and they were now ready to leave the center. Saya kept her children close to her on their way to the airport, the twins sat in the car peeking through the windows, and Lulu would play with the radio as Kai drove. The day was hot, probably the hottest this summer and the AC was not working, a bad day for it not to work; but anyways the windows were down letting the coastal breeze cool the car. The clock marked 1: 59 as they stopped in the airport, where the rest would stand waiting for them in the shadow of the private jet Joel had arrange for them.

As they waited to take off, they as well waited to take the next step into something bigger that would change their lives; probably even bigger than what they realized.


	9. Lights Overseas

**Chapter 9: "Lights Overseas" **

_-"The place where we are going . . . why is it called that way? Is it possible for a city to be brighter than the sun, and with more lights than stars in the night sky?"_

The car stopped exactly at 1:59 in the parking lot of the airport, the doors opened and they started descending. The others would stand in the shadow of the jet, watching them walk through the piercing heat. Outside the sun blazed with dazzling rays that could blind the view. The heat was intense, the wind felt burning, and heat in the floor would pierce through the shoes. Forty-four degrees Celsiusat the heat of the sun, and thirty-seven degrees Celsius in the shadow, was what the thermometer would mark, although it seemed that it could actually be several degrees higher. Standing in the open for too long, could be a death sentence if you started dehydrating. The temperature would not rise, but neither did it decrease, making it even worst. All this, made up one of those days that could not be easily avoided, maybe if you had an AC or a pool, but rather than that, not even standing in the shadow would help to escape to the reality of the day.

As soon as they crossed the parking lot, they gathered around the plane, and got the luggage ready. The time past quickly and the clock would mark quarter for three and still, there were no visible signs of the location of the Red Shield chief.

"Hey," Kai said as everybody turned their heads toward him, "Where is Joel? It's almost three o' clock. He was the one who told us to be here on time"

"Kai, that you could not see me standing here," the chief said as the door in the jet opened," it does not mean I was not here all the time."

"Everything is ready sir." a flying attendant said,"You may now aboard."

As instructed by the flying attendant they all followed Joel into the jet, at first looks, it seemed as if it had a hotel-like decoration; elegant and luxurious. They all grabbed a place in the airplane, and waited for the door to close. As they all buckled up, Mao looked quite uncertain about something, and so she decided to speak her mind as she always does.

"Isn't landing in this jet in an airport not being discreet?" Mao asked.

"We are not." a voice from behind was heard.

"Okamura?! What are you doing here?!" she yelled at the reporter, who ignored her and peacefully walked through the aisle toward his place.

"Hmm?" he said as he sat "I am doing my job, which includes taking pictures for the archives. Besides, I know too much to be left here on my own."

"Still, if we are not landing in an airport, where are we?" Mao asked.

"We are landing in the new headquarters of the Red Shield." Joel replied, "It' has a wide heliport where the jet can land, and it is stationed not too far from the shores of England."

"You mean, as in a ship?" she asked again, but the chief only nodded.

As Joel answered Mao's question, the turbines roared to life and the jet took off. In less than an hour everybody was asleep, after all it was a long flight and everyone was tired by the events of the previous days. But Saya, besides the others, remained most of the flight's first hours awake. She seemed to be disturbed about something; therefore it did not let her sleep. She seemed to be uncertain about what she could find across the sea and in that city. She tried to get her mind out of those thoughts, first by watching the decoration, then by reading a book, looking at her babies' cocoons, who by the way where in a cradle besides her, she repeated this many times without any success. But it was until she watched through her window how the clouds were dimly lighted by the sunset, which gave them beautiful shades of different tones of orange and yellow to their usual plain white color, it was then, when she felt sleepy and took a long nap; a thirteen hours nap to be exact; if that could possibly be dared to be called a nap. The hours passed and so did the Trans-Atlantic flight concluded. It was when the plane landed in the new headquarters, when she started to regain consciousness and started to hear a familiar voice calling her.

"Saya, Saya, we are here." her brother called.

"Hmm?" she said as she opened her eyes.

"We have already landed. Everybody else is already out." he said as the rest descended.

She then looked at him carrying her nieces, one in each arm, and decided to wake up. They walked through the aisles and descended from the plane and into the ship. Outside it was night already, and she noticed that everybody else had moved into their assigned rooms and started to unpack. Meanwhile, she stood in the deck for a while, enjoying a moment of solitude in the peaceful night; feeling the salty ocean breeze in her face, hearing the sound of the washing waves in the peaceful night of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Are you staying here?" her brother asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, I don't feel like sleeping." she said looking at her nieces, "Don't worry about me, you should put the twins into bed, it was a long flight after all."

"And how about eating?" Lewis said walking through the deck.

Her stomach growled, and it certainly did not lie, this made her white face flush into a shade of pink, as in accepting the invitation to eat.

"I'll take that as a yes." Lewis said and they all followed him into the kitchen.

As they walked into the kitchen, they smelled a mixture of fragrances that included the heavy aromas of the food mixed with the smell of alcohol, coffee and tobacco that came from a table in the dinning room. The sound of chatter and laughter was the only sounds that could be heard in the room, besides the clanging metals that came from the kitchen. The ones responsible of this noise, for Kai and Saya's surprise, were Joel, Julia, David, Mao and Okamura. They seemed to have been drinking, for a while when they joined the table, even though they had not even touched their plates and their food was now cold. Kai placed the twins in a pair of nearby chairs, and after that he joined the table together with Saya.

"So I then saw him over there, you know." Mao said in a drunken tone about to pass out.

"It was about time for you to join us." Okamura said as he lighted another cigarette.

"Sorry for being late," Saya apologized.

It was late midnight; when Saya went to the deck for a breath of clean, fresh air after feeling dizzy by the heavy aromas of the kitchen. As she walked through the deck, not aware that she was being followed by one of her nieces, she decided to lie down while she watched the stars. As she rested and enjoyed a peaceful moment, she heard tiny footsteps that came towards where she was laying. It was Aoi, the blue-eyed twin, who had followed her. She quietly sat besides her aunt and raised her head to watch the stars.

"Auntie Saya." she said in a sleepy tone.

"Aoi?!" she asked and wondered why she was awake so late in the night, "Does Kai knows you are here?"

She blushed and bowed her head, she knew now that she had successfully sneaked out of the vigilant eye of his uncle, and that a possible punishment will come next.

"No" she answered shyly, "Please don't tell him"

"I will not. Come here please. "Saya said with a smile as her niece sat on her lap. "Why did you look for me any ways?"

"I wanted to ask you something." she said still blushed.

"What is it?" Saya asked curious.

"The place where we are going . . . why it is called that way?" she said looking at the night sky, "Is it possible for a city to be brighter than the sun, and with more lights than stars in the night sky?"

Aoi looked at her aunt with curiosity, she wanted to know why; but Saya thought for a while after she heard her niece's question. How could she answer that question? How could she explain her? That was what she wondered. After a while, she cleared her thoughts and looked at Aoi, who was anxious to hear the answer.

"Well, the place where we are going." she said as she sat Aoi besides her, "At night, that city is full of lights, maybe not as many as stars in the sky, maybe not as bright as the sun, but they sure look beautiful."

"But auntie, why it has so many lights?" Aoi asked still confused.

"Well . . ." she said unsure about what to say next.

"What are you two doing here?" Kai spoke from behind Saya's back.

"Watching the stars." both queens said in choir.

"It's late and both of you need to sleep." he said looking at Aoi.

"But I'm not sleepy." the blue eyed queen said as she tried not to yawn.

Kai then gave a reproachful gaze at his niece; it was useless to try to lie after she sneaked out. She tried to plead to be out for a while, but it did not worked.

"Night Aunt Saya." Aoi said as she left with Mao, leaving Kai and Saya in the deck.

"You have been thinking, am I right?" Kai said as he sat besides his sister.

She only nodded and lay on her back, watching the ultramarine night sky turn clearer. For a while, only the sound of the washing waves could be heard on the deck, she kept thinking about those dreams, which turned out to be the lost memories her memory wanted to blur.

"Why Kai? Why did I let this happen?" she said as she bursted into tears, "Solomon, he gave his life for me although I did not loved him, and he gave me something I did not deserved; and Haji, he, he, protected me to the very end risking his life. And above all this I forgot them."

Kai was shocked at her words; it was him, Solomon Goldsmith who raped Saya. At the moment he did not knew how to react, whether with anger for doing something without her consent or yet with relief, knowing that he did loved her although of the situation.

"Saya," he said as he stood up," I know this is something that hurts you so much, and I also know that is hard to believe for you that he had been alive after what happened at the MET. But, I know that if you call him, he will come, he always does."

"Thank you Kai." she said wiping the tears from her eyes. "I will and I know he always does."

Her sorrow turned into hoped as she heard those words, it was true, and he always was there when she needed him the most. It was not long before she realized Kai left the deck after he spoke with her. It was dawn, and the orange sun reflected on the ocean, making the morning look more beautiful than what it usually does.

"Haji, come back." she said at the rise of the sun.

And she spoke those words letting them be carried by the wind, hoping for them to be heard above the noise of the crashing waves, letting them find their way into the city of lights, where she wished for them to be listened by the light of her life.

* * *

44 Celsius equals 111.2 Fahrenheit

37 Celsius equals 98.6 Fahrenheit


	10. Odyssey of the Spirit

**Chapter 10: "Odyssey of the Spirit"**

_-"Go. Look for him. Don't be afraid of following you heart. If you are really sure of what your heart is telling you, you will surely find what your spirit is looking for."_

The still and calm waters of the Atlantic Ocean vanished in the middle of a sea of mist and foggy weather, which happened to cover the entire view of the English Channel, turning the calm seas into dangerous waters, with heavy rainstorms, constant thunders and crashing waves. The rain would not stop falling, not in the day or in the night, thunders would occasionally cause a "jumpy" feeling when you least expect it, and the crashing waves will move the ship really easily. But after a week of what seemed never ending pouring rains, everything was now part of the sounds and motions of the daily basis. If it was not enough to think that the weather had delayed their chances of getting safe and on time to the shores, it had left a nostalgic, gloomy and almost depressing feeling all over the ship. This feeling had turned minutes into hours, hours into days and days into months, all resulting in making their only week aboard look like a long and never ending eternity

Eternity was one of the thoughts that flooded her mind with such ease, leaving no space for other thoughts, maybe sometimes the idea of how horribly painful would be to cross the world and find nothing at all, no clues no relief, nothing but pain and disappointment. Sometimes relief would come to her in the most unexpected ways; as a warm smile from her friends and family, as the gentle sea breeze, as the fact that every second was a moment closer to getting to their final destination, or as simple distractions like meetings or medical checkups. But apparently this was not enough to keep her mind busy with other thoughts. Instead, she would pass most of her afternoons in seclusion with constant headaches, lying in her bed watching the cocoons of her "unborn" children, hearing the slow ticking noise of the clock and the sound of the pouring rain and clashing thunders; waiting for something to happen, anything that could free her from her current personal hell.

"What is eternity without someone to spend it with?" she thought as she stared blankly at the door in her room, waiting for something that could change her uninteresting day.

For her surprise the door suddenly flung open, letting the chilly and stormy breeze enter her room. She walked and closed it, not a surprise finding nobody but the occasional seagull that kept wandering in the hall. As she turned she realized that she had visitors in her room, the lilac haired chiropteran accompanied by two raven haired twins to be precise. The three of them were sitting in her bed, watching how she pulled a chair near the mattress.

"Morning, Auntie Saya!!" the sisters said in a choir.

"Morning Aki, Aoi, Lulu." the queen said as she sat, "Isn't a little bit too early to be already wandering around the ship, hiding from Kai?"

"No. It's already noon." Aki said as she and her sister giggled.

"Uncle Kai sends us." Aoi said innocently.

"He did?" she said giving a skeptical look at Lulu, "Is that true?"

"Well, yes. He said you had a meeting at one o' clock." she said as she looked at the clock.

She bit her lip as she watched the clock, which marked 12:45, she wondered if she could make it to the meeting within fifteen minutes.

"Can we walk with you? Today is not raining so much." Aki pleaded.

"Please, Auntie Saya." the twins said with puppy eyes.

"Ok." she said as they walked out of the room.

Outside, the chilly breeze flowed together with a very soft rain, which wetted the deck and the hallways. They walked through the halls, passing by the seagull, and climbed the stairs that led to the deck. As they emerged, they realized that a crowd gathered around something that lied in the middle of the deck. Both twins ran scared to their aunt and uncle, and the Schiff gathered also around the crowd of people, leaving Saya alone and bewildered.

She slowly and cautiously walked to the middle of the deck, and placed her hand on her brother's shoulder, but it seemed as if he had not felt anything at all.

"What is happening?" she said as she made her self through the crowd.

She heard no answer, no whisper, nothing, but she could feel the deep sights of her friends and family, although they were focusing at the floor. She looked around, but did not see their faces, and then she faced what they were currently looking. It seemed as big chunks of a hard grey stone that had been cut somehow, exposing the sides of a very strange, bright crystalline red glass, with sparkles very similar to the ones in gems such as the ruby. She kneeled besides the chunks of grey-red stone and took one in her hand, as she grabbed it and she realized they were pieces of _his_ dismembered body. Heavy drops fell from the darkened skies and from the white skin of the queen, both with great pain and sadness. The pouring rain started to become every time louder, until not even her screams and cries were audible. She took a piece of his body and crushed it, seeing how it turned into dust, vanishing into the deep green sea; the pounding rain continued falling, hurting her papery skin. But as the rain kept falling, it started to blur her vision; she tried to turn around but the current scenery dissolved into the obscured walls of her room, and the chunk of "stone" turned into her soft bed sheets.

It had all been a dream, a very mortifying nightmare to be precise, probably the effect of her chronic migraines and preoccupations. She looked around, the rain had not stopped falling for a minute, pounding constantly as hard as her heart right now; and the clock marked one o'clock in the morning. Her head although had stopped aching but her heart did not; it only made it beat with more strength. She stood up from her bed in the dim lighted room, looking for a jacket as she made her way out of her room. As she opened the door, the cold air made her legs shake, although, she continued walking through the deserted halls, a thing that had now became a habit of hers. It had been some time after she started walking when she realized that she was far away from her room. She looked around and found a familiar shadow in a faraway end. It was her "sister-in-law", who remained sited outside her room.

"I did not knew you too enjoyed being up all night." Mao said with sarcasm.

"Hmm? I was just walking, I cannot sleep." she said as she approached where Mao was sitting, "Why are you sitting outside? You too suffer from insomnia?"

"Kind of. The boat shaking makes me feel seasick." Mao said as she looked at Saya's concerned face, "You should be happy, we are almost there."

"I know, but it is just that. . . I don't know really why I'm so concerned." she said with angst.

Mao gave a smirk and looked the other way of the dim moonlighted hallway, and then faced the queen once again after she had stood up from the cold floor.

"Go. Look for him." Mao said with a tender voice, seeing right at Saya's red blood eyes, "Don't be afraid of following you heart. If you are really sure of what your heart is telling you, you will surely find what your spirit is looking for."

Her words were clear and sincere, if she was really certain that he will be there, she will find him. He has always been there when she needed him the most. She hoped that this time will occur with no exception. But even tough she wondered if she would be stopped by somebody, would someone even dare to interfere in the most eternal of loves?

"What about Kai? He's always a worrywart, over _over_-protective big brother." Saya said as she wiped her slightly wetted eyes. "He would want to come too."

"Do not worry; I'll stop him if he even dares to put a foot in Paris." Mao said as she winked her eye, "He should understand you have to do it alone. Besides if you go now, I guess you will be back when he's up. I'll tell the others besides Kai if you're worried. "

"Thank you Mao." she said as she hugged her.

"Do not thank me. Just go right now, before it is too late." Mao yelled as Saya ran through the hall, but she was now to far away to have heard Mao's words.

"I hope Kai does not over react, but I guess I'm asking for so much." she mumbled under her breath as she silently tried to sneak back into her room.

Meanwhile she returned to her room, far away in the hallways of the ship, Saya ran as fast as she could, in her human speed, through the dimly moonlighted hallways. She climbed the stairs that led to the deck and stopped for a moment, looking at the raging sea. It was still raining when she got there, but even though she decided to literally jump to the storm. Was it the heat of the moment that made her take that decision, was it the hope, faith and relief she had found in Mao's word what made her take that path? Or was it both? It really did not matter, because she knew she was certain of what she will find out there this time; she knew she would find him waiting for her, just the way they had promised years ago during that night at the Metropolitan Opera House.

As soon as she entered the storm, her heart started to pant and overflow with the heat of the moment. It was difficult to find her way through the endless sea of mist as she moved in blurs, landing in what she could find. The dense fog and pouring rain was still heavy, making her body soak and her clothes heavier. The more she jumped was the closer she was of getting there; she could feel something in her blood that told her heart did not lied.

As she got to land, she started to see some weak lights in the horizon, by dawn she had already reached Paris, it did not took her more than a few hours to reach the city, but it did made her push her self a little harder than usual. As the first rays of sun braked into the many streets of the city she felt the consequences of her rush, exhaustion. Although she had turned a trip that normally had taken some days into a one night walk, she felt her body heavy, numb, cold and her clothes damp and soaked with rain water.

It was not even nine o'clock when she started to walk through the streets, everything brought her an air of nostalgia as she toured the city, it had not changed much, of what she remembered, since her last visit. Many stores and places where still closed, and she ran out of options of where to look. She had already been near to the place where they stayed last time; she had sneaked out to the balcony in the Eifel Tower, and been to the library, she had also searched near all the most important sightseeing points in the city; but apparently she did not find where he could be. Stressed, she sat on the bench of a park that had a view to a part of a city she had not searched yet. In the horizon, it could be seen a white circular building that catch her attention.

"Was not Cinq Fleches here?" she murmured to her self.

"You mean that white building over there?" a strange eerie voice called from behind.

"Yes, is there still being used?" she said innocently as she turned to see the man sitting behind her, but he was hiding his face as he read a newspaper. "I guess not, right?"

"Hmm, they wish. It has been abandoned since the last CEO went mad." the man said.

"You mean, Solomon Goldsmith?" she said with interest.

"No. I believe Van Argiano was his name." he said indifferent, "But, I highly recommend you to stay away from that place, people says strange things happen there. I must leave, goodbye."

Saya stared shocked at the former offices of Cinq Fleches, was it really true what the man had said? If it was true, what kind of strange things happened there? She thought it would be a trip worth doing, so she went on her way to the white building.

As she got to the building, it seemed so obscure, so abandoned; maybe the man was right; after all nobody could have managed the company all this years. The grounds surrounding the building were deserted, and framed in a wire fence. She walked around the fence trying to find a spot to enter, when she found a familiar man near the fence; he was wearing an old weathered brown suit and hat, and he was too reading a newspaper, you could barely see his face and some of his gray colored hair, and you could tell he was above sixty-five.

"Young lady, please do not enter this place." the man pleaded in a dry voice.

"Excuse me, have we met?" she said as she stared at the man.

"Probably not, but I can tell you strange things happen here." he said shakily.

"I have been told thank you." she said as she tried to climb the wire barrier. "But I can take care of my self."

"Under your own risk, madam." he mumbled under his breath and left the place.

"Under your risk, but I guess it dose not matter more food for the "mice."' he said chuckling.

As soon as the stranger left, Saya climbed the barrier and entered the lonely building; it was obscure and with an eerie feeling in the air. As soon as the door shut behind her strange shadows passed through the dimly lighted lobby. Besides her footsteps, there were few sounds that could be heard, like panting sounds.

Back at the Red Shield Headquarters, everybody remained in a carelessly calm for the moment. All but Kai knew where Saya was and still they were all calmed; but not for long. Kai searched every centimeter of the ship for his sister but she was nowhere to be found, and that worried him as the over-protective brother he had turned over the past few years.

He stormed into the great meeting hall, or conference room/ cafeteria they had adopted over the last week, where everybody remained seated eating breakfast in calm.

"Where is Saya!? I am sure you all know!!" he yelled.

Everybody turned around, and looked with indifference and returned to their plate, surprisingly nobody answered, only munched.

"She's at Paris; we'll meet her there by nightfall." David replied.

"She's where?!" he reacted with amusement.

He took a chair and tried to clam down, about what had happened and where Saya was.

"So after all she went to look for Haji and probably meet Nathan." Kai sighed heavily.

As soon as he mentioned the name of the queer chevalier, was when everybody dropped their forks and knives and turned to see the red haired man.

"What?! Nathan is there and you did not tell us!" David said raising his usual voice.

"She said Nathan would "like to meet her soon" or something like that." he said in his own defense, "But she did not implied to visit him!"

"Never hold information like that again!" David said giving a cold look to Kai, " The difference between knowing and implying could cost Saya's life!!"

Kai stood speechless, at David's words; it was not likely of Kai to hold important information such as this. He could see the fury in David's eyes, and he understand why, as far as they knew, Nathan was still a threat to the Red Shield, especially Saya. And leaving her alone with the possibility of Nathan being there was like a death sentence to her. Everything in the ship started moving at four times the normal speed, just to get to Paris on time, every second they spared was highly important.

Back at the city of lights, the queen walked through the abandoned halls of the pharmaceutical company, still hearing strange panting voices around her.

"Hello?" she yelled "Anybody here?"

Her voice echoed through the empty walls of the once successful corporation, and at the same time, something threateningly- thirsty lurked in the shadows.


	11. Blood at the Garden

**Chapter 11: "Blood at the Garden"**

_-"I never expected to see these guys again. What am I saying?! I sure did expect to see them again, but just not now and probably not today!"_

Thousands of thoughts and sounds revolved around him in complete disarray, intensifying the smallest sound and confusing simple concepts with abstract ideas. Time seemed to have slowed for him, when it actually moved many times faster. Disorientation would be the best word to describe this moment, he might have known where he was standing but not on what he was standing on, meaning he was confused on what just had happened few moments ago. He did knew that many kilometers, far away from where he was standing, his sister would be facing danger of some sort that would try to take her life away, like in many other occasions. He knew that he had done wrong, in not saying important information, but he did not comprehend why it should have to be so though to understand, that she had left telling everybody but him.

Trying to hold his breath and calm down will not help her, but it would help him relax in a moment of complete confusion and frustration. He lied his head on the table, just seeing swarms of people coming in and out of nowhere, most of them carrying guns or any sort of weapons. This highly made him reconsider about what was really going on, if they where to enter a "rescue mission', or if they were preparing for a war against an army of the blood-sucking monsters they had fought endless times in the past.

"How stupid am I" he said to himself, "She might be suffering and I can't do anything."

"Don't punish yourself so hard," a warm voice said behind him, "It was not completely your fault, she really did not told you if it was also part of her plan visit him too."

"Gee, thanks honey." He said to his wife," I wonder if we will we get on time, though."

"We always do." Lewis said chuckling.

"I hope so." Kai said as a warm smile appeared on his face,"Will she be ok? She has not her katana with her or anything to defend herself."

"You underestimate her too much, Kai." Lewis said as he dropped a heavy box on the table.

"You made a new katana for her?" he said as he looked at the box, "I should not be surprised that is better than the last one."

Lewis chuckled, as Kai passed his fingers on top of the black velvety box that held Saya's new katana. The velvet felt soft and delicate and it had traditional Japanese patterns in a lighter tone of gray, which beautifully contrasted with the raven colored velvet. He carefully took the lid of the box and opened it; the katana was designed the same way, with its special mechanism, its blade shined in a tone of silver and it had a red pendant hanging from the scabbard of her katana, probably George's or Diva's crystallized chiropteran blood. It looked the same, but somehow it did looked totally different, like if it was hiding another weapon.

"Like it?" Lewis said and Kai nodded,"Well, I got something for you too."

Lewis dropped a smaller box; this was plain white cardboard, the size of a shoe box. No details, no elegancy, no high-quality handcrafted goods, no glamour whatsoever, just a plain box with a yellow post-it on top with Kai's name written on it. He took it with both hands and opened its lid; inside there was a new gun and his usual custom green and red bullets.

"Thank you Lewis." he said with a little of disappointment.

"Don't thank me, thank David and Joel." he said chuckling.

"I'll thank them latter." He said as he left for the deck.

The deck was oddly deserted for a day high in activities, and for the first time in weeks it was dry. He held his new gun in one hand and the box under his left arm as he lean over the handrail of the deck. He found the gun quite of awkward, just the same kind of awkward as he had find Saya's katana. He turned his head to face the sun, but his eyes where blinded by the sunrays. This had become a relief after so long of not seeing a clear sky for weeks, it cleared up his mood; but even though some preoccupations did not go away that easily.

It might have been just his imagination, which by now had thought of endless scenarios of what could be happening in that city across the sea; but he could probably swear something fishy was going on, and it was not necessarily linked to what they thought it might be going on, or of what they thought they knew, but indeed it was something else.

Far away in the horizon, back in Paris, the chiropteran queen, walked in the shadows of the abandoned building, making her way through ruble, piles of yellowed papers, and other things that became indistinct in the barely lighted building. Her footsteps and the squeaking of rats were the only sounds heard, by now the panting sounds had stopped.

She kept walking through the many floors of the building, until she found a girder obstructing her way. She jumped through the free spaces where the girder did not block, but she was still too tired and the moment she landed she fell to the ground, cutting her knee and bruising her arms. The indistinct aroma of the iron in the blood flowed in the room, although the small cut had healed few moments ago. And the panting sounds returned again, but this time they surrounded her appearing out of the shadows and taking a shape; they where chiropterans, big brown, blood thirsty man-made chiropterans which panted in desperation. She stood up and looked around her, the floor was full of them, every place she turned around there was a chiropteran waiting for her. By now she realized that dodging them would not be an easy task; she moved in blurs between them, with the purpose of confusing them, but apparently it was not working and she was getting tired. She stopped for a second and the swarms of chiropterans were surrounding her with great speed. She tried once again to move away from them, but this time they had become quite agitated, and started raving ferociously at Saya. She avoided most of their hits, there were few that she did not and luckily did not cause her much harm other than a bruise or a scratch that quickly faded away. This kept for some time, when her eyes started glowing, focusing on a small pack of chiropterans. She focused her gaze for a while on them and few minutes later, their bodies where covered in deep cuts.

"So this is the ability Nathan talked about." she said as she dodged another pack.

She started backing off, slowly one step after the other, when a hard slash from a chiropteran behind, lift her up and made her hit the ground. She was paralyzed by the pain; her body numb and she could not make it respond. She rolled over her back, trying to reach for a safe place, but her sight had once again been blurred by the blood from her wounds.

"Ah! Haji!! " she screamed unconsciously in pain.

The chiropterans started to gather around her, the smell of blood had called them. They all screamed in an eerie unison in desperation for the crimson nectar. Suddenly thudding sounds filled the floor, one after another with no reason the chiropterans started to fall, just as if they had been hit very hard by something as heavy as a really big iron rod and at the same time as sharp as a sword. When the thudding stopped, all the chiropterans laid on the floor, most of them dead others just bleeding really heavily.

She crawled to see what had happened, but her vision was still blurry and she could not see much than a tall shadow standing in front of her. The shadow kneeled and took her in his arms, carrying her as they made their way out of the dead bodies. Her mysterious savior, carried her somewhere in the building, she felt a warm and familiar embrace surrounding her numb body. This made her feel quite relieved but at the same time uncertain. She could recognize many things of her mysterious savior, the warm embrace, the delicate touch, the smell of his body, all of this aroused a relief she had not felt in such a long time and she desperately seek and longed for. A cold hand passed through her forehead, removing a bang of her hair, but she stopped the hand as it moved, and she held it tightly. She tried to open her eyes, but it only made her drowsier making her eyelids fall.

"Is that really you?" she said in a sleepy voice.

Her savior did not answer, but he did give a warm smile as he carried her through the rubble and debris of the building, finding a proper place to settle down for a while.

Many floors below, in the lobby of the building an impatient troop of Red Shield agents and familiar faces entered. Most of the troops searched the building for any type of signs. The lower floors were clear of threats, but as they keep going up, some chiropterans appeared her and there, but it was something it could be resolved by using one of the many variety of weapons they had brought with them.

"I never expected to see these guys again." Lewis said as he shot some chiroptera, "What am I saying?! I sure did expect to see them again, but just not now and probably not today!"

"You did expect them to see these things again?" Mao asked skeptically.

"Sure I did!" he said as they moved into one of the highest floors of the building,"After all, this is on what we Red Shield agents make a living of. "

"Sad it might sound, but this is indeed true." Okamura said as he took some pictures for the archives. "After all, there is something fishy with that Nathan Mahler."

Mao just sighed, keeping a short distance between her and his husband's body.

"Why did I ever refuse to watch over the kids?" she mumbled under her breath.

"Because of your stubbornness." Kai replied,"Besides, it was dangerous for Lulu to come."

They moved between the piles of rubble up to the floor, were Saya had been. Piles of chiroptera remained on the floor, all of them dead, producing a stanching and rotting smell that contaminated the room. They moved through the bodies with caution, and stopped for a while. The wounds in the chiroptera catch Julia's attention, she kneeled to see them closely and she noticed something quite strange but familiar.

"The chiroptera died in hands of a chevalier." Julia said turning to David.

"I'll send in the troops to pick up the bodies for study." David reply.

"You mean he is really here?" Kai asked.

"We cannot be certain," Julia said as she stood up, "but he probably saved Saya, she alone could not have done this much harm without a weapon."

"Let's look for him then!" Kai replied energetically.

"There is no need to rush, Kai." David yelled, "Is there something besides empty offices?"

"There is a conservatory in the last floor." a queer voice answered.

"Nathan Mahler show your self!" Kai said rushing.

"Long time no see." He said as he appeared behind Kai's back and then moved besides the girder. "I see you have a lot of questions to ask me. Am I right?"

"Should we start asking, or you want to say something before?" Kai snapped ferociously.

"As a matter of fact yes I do." The queer chevalier said moving closer, "But let's first takes you people to the conservatory, is a nice place over there. Besides it is the only thing left in this building that is not destroyed and that has enough light to see you all."

"So be it." David said as they followed Nathan through the stairs.

They followed Nathan, through the last couple of stairs, as they reached the last floor a warm light started to fill the room. He opened the door and they found a beautiful garden, full of white roman marble columns, bushes of blooming roses, replicas of giant dinosaurs and a diagram of all the phylias in the front of the garden. It was indeed lighted and beautiful; they all gazed at the garden and lost sight of the chevalier, who was now sitting on top of a column. They looked at him, and patiently waited for his words.

"So what is so important for you to tell us?" Kai said charging at him.

"Easy there, haven't they told you that you tend to rush?" he said in a calm voice.

"Endless of times." Mao answered under her breath.

"First of all, I did not send the chiroptera, after all I have no reason why for." he said.

"How can we believe your word?" Okamura asked.

"Because, I know who send them." he said as he landed in the floor "You might like to take note of this, Red Shield agents."

He moved through the garden, and reached the table at the center of it. The rest just followed him and watch him take a seat at the table, and helped himself a glass of Chateau Duel, and took the cup in his long fingers.

"Remember that old and gray haired doctor Miss Julia?" he said looking at her.

"It is impossible!! How could he done it?" Julia answered, "He had no access to the Delta-67"

"Well apparently, Collins had his way somehow." he said looking at the wine. "As far as I know he plans to set us all up, Red Shield, Cinq Fleche and chiroptera."

The garden fell into silence, everyone meet gazes as they tried to absorb the information they had been told a few moments ago, and after all they did had a human enemy.

"And this troubles you how?" Mao asked imprudently.

"Well, lets just say I appreciate privacy a little too much." he said leaving the cup on the table.

"Does he know Saya is awake?" David asked.

"About that, he's so clueless." He said as he stood up, "He even ignores than Aki and Aoi are already born. Yes, before you ask I have been keeping an eye on you for a while."

Kai found all of this infuriating, how could he get to know so much and them too little? This question bounced over his head for a while.

"You have been quiet," he said as he moved behind Kai's back, "there is a lot of time for questions, but I'll give you the last question of the evening. You might ask anything you want. I bet you want to know where your lovely sister Saya is."

Kai found Nathan's tone quite provoking, and at the same time such sincere, like if he had read his mind, or was it that Kai was easy to read and provoke? And that was why he gave him the last question of the evening? He did not know, but he did not waste the chance.

"Where is she? And who saved her down there?" he asked.

"Kai, Kai, Kai, that are two questions, but indeed one same answer." he said chuckling, "She is with the person she needs most in this moment and has missed for so long. I guess you already know who I mean."

A mischievous smirk appeared on Nathans face as everybody else's minds flooded with many questions, questions doubting the credibility of his words, questions about if he was trustworthy enough to consider him more of an alley rather than a threat, questions about the questions their self. These doubts popped on everyone's head, they were impressed at what they were facing now. True or even false, after so many things they have lived and passed through a truth like this would not be hard to swallow but indeed hard not to doubt.

"You choose to believe me or not," he said as he crushed the cup of wine in his bare hand, "but I hope you take the right decision"

After all these battles, after so much blood shed of un-human enemies, they now faced an enemy far beyond more dangerous, a human enemy with the purpose of unrevealing a secret kept for so long, by using the secret as a weapon itself.


	12. Confessions of the Twilight

**Chapter 12: "Confessions of the Twilight"**

_-"It takes more than just blood to kill a chevalier. Things like irrational love, lust, desperation, power and sometimes even loyalty, can cause a more powerful self-destruction."_

The dark starred mantle that is known as night sky fell upon the city of lights, filling every corner with its raven color and its stars. As it fell, every corner, alley, street, and house filled the capital with the many electric lights that had named the city. A chilly breeze flowed, cooling everything it had on range, even the most remote, deep and hidden places in the tallest buildings and structures of the city; which are more likely to be unknown to the eye of the average, wandering men. The rain returned once again, as a soft and pleasant shower, which somehow brought more life to the Parisian night. The sound of the raindrops was accompanied by the sound of a beautiful lullaby, that by now it was well known to the city, but it indeed produced such a feeling of relief and well-being to anyone that heard it.

A cracking fire burned, enlightening with a yellow-orange glow that gave more of an aspect of twilight than shadows to the room. And it burned in such a way, that it warmed the place giving a cozy and sleepy feeling, rather that the feeling of the fierce, burning flames.

Her sleeping figure lay on the warm floor, moving occasionally, as she tried to find some rest in her dreams. The music continued as she kept sleeping, but once that she started to react it stopped, and the warmth of the fire disappear into a more embracing and familiar warmth.

"Where am I?" she asked sleepily, "Am I still sleeping?"

"No, but stay still you are still weak." a voice pleaded.

The queen disobeyed and moved; even though her body was not numb anymore, some pain remained. She opened her eyes and realized that her body was warm and covered with a long dark jacket. Her eyes scanned the room, looking for the voice of her savior, but from her position she only could see the fire, and the ruble and debris of the building.

"Is this still the Cinq Fleche building?" she asked with curiosity.

"Yes, it is." the man said, "I still beg you to remain still, you where about to catch a cold."

His cold hand, which was covered with gauze, removed a bang of her dark hair from her face, but his hand was stopped as she slowly raised her hand to hold his. She grabbed the gauze and pulled it, uncovering a soft and marble white hand. She turned her head in disbelief of maybe finding somebody else, and saw_ him_ sitting besides her.

"It's really you, after all this you are here." she said as tears gently fell from her eyes.

"Yes it is me; I had to keep my promise this time." Haji said looking at her.

He gently wiped the tears from her face, as she kept looking into his deep blue eyes. She tried to move, but she was stopped by her chevalier, who kept stroking her long and dark hair. For her it seemed like an eternity since she had seen him for the last time.

"Your hair has grown so long," he said as he kept stroking her hair, "almost as long as when we used to live in "the Zoo"of Bordeaux."

Her white face flushed into a shade of pink at the sound of the complement, it was indeed true that since she waked up her hair had grown longer than the last time she was awake; now it was almost the same length while living in the zoo.

She occasionally kept looking at his hand, trying to look discreet, but it was hard not to see that his hand was "human" once again after almost forty years.

"How come that you escape from the Metropolitan opera house?" she asked curious.

"After you left," he said clearing his voice, "the opera house, was destroyed. But I somehow survived the explosion. My head and torso remained intact, but my body took long to recover. During your sleep, I kept hiding in New York, it was until a year ago that my body healed completely and I could use my powers to look out for you."

"But, didn't Amshel pierced through your torso?" she asked confused.

"He did not damage my heart." he said smiling, "It takes more than just blood to kill a chevalier. Things like irrational love, lust, desperation, power and sometimes even loyalty, can cause a more powerful self-destruction."

Her eyes once again flooded into tears, she could not help it. Since she woke up she had passed through a lot of things to find him once again. The long sleepless nights of blurred memories, the indescribable aching pain, the nightmares caused by migraines, all which reduced to relief of feeling his presence besides her when she woke up after such surprises.

He kept stroking her hair while she lay down on the floor; her body was still too weak to move, but even though she did not wanted to interrupt such tender moment.

The room was filled with silence for sometime, although they had spent so much time together, and some years alone on their own, they did not needed to speak too much to know how each other felt, so many years of traveling together had shown them this and much more about each other. Even though, the silence was an evasion, they did need to speak about many things of different sorts.

For a moment, she evaded his sight, looking at the burning red fire instead of his cold blue eyes, she did not show it but she felt uneasy, impatient, and mostly thirsty for his blood. After all, it was his blood what she needed to regain forces. She slowly tried to rise and sit, trying to get closer to his body, especially his neck, but she barely could raise herself with her body still sore and partially injured.

"Agh!" she grunted in pain.

"Saya!" the chevalier screamed as he caught her from falling.

"I'm just. . ." the queen replied confused.

He slowly pulled out a dagger from his pocket and swiftly cut his tender and white skin, making blood pour from the scar. He slowly put the blood into his mouth, and reached her soft and red lips, kissing her with such passion and intensity. This although was a "blood kiss" this time it was not entirely lead by necessity or by hunger, but mostly lead by passion, love and care. There are things you tend to miss, and this was one of those things.

Her white skin flushed into a deeper shade of pink almost red, her arms slowly surrounded his neck as they kept kissing. For first time in many years, neither of them though they would enjoy such thing, that they have seen rather as a way to awaken from hibernation.

The moment broke with such awkwardness, like those moments that are interrupted with out any kind of advice but always with a reason behind it, mostly a good reason.

They sat again in the dusty marble floor of the building in debris, watching each other as a couple of teenagers who just had their first kiss, blushed and slightly confused. The warm embracing moment turned into a cold and suspense scene in which is unlikely to know what is to happen next, but by heart you could always tell it is not likely to be something good, but something rather more "evil".

The grunting screams of thirst that usually identified a chiropteran returned, but instead of being a swarm of them, only one injured and partially destroyed chiropteran appeared, sulking slowly through the darkness and moving the debris that blocked his way through the partially lighted room. His grunted screams seemed not to intensify, but there was a kind of intensifying ticking noise in them that provoked a headache to the chiropteran queen.

The loyal chevalier looked at the chiropteran and saw a dark bundle attached to his leg, probably the source of the ticking noises that bothered Saya so much, then he returned his gaze to his queen and saw her covering her ears and about to scream in desperation.

A low-pitched screamed came out of her throat, and the windows and glasses in the entire building to shattered at the sound of the scream, in a rain of thousand pieces of small glass daggers; that could easily leave a small cut with only touching your skin.

As the chiropteran slowly advance toward its target, the chevalier took his queen in his arms and without thinking it twice, jumped through the glass-less windows, which were previously shattered, landing with enormous grace and safe in the nearby deserted grounds of the building. Not an injured leg, not even a single scratch could be seen in his white skin, but it indeed reassured of their inhuman force and of the love he had toward his queen.

Meanwhile the chiropteran, searched confused for its prey, in the higher floors of the building it also seemed that everything was literally coming down.

The glass ceiling that covered the conservatory in the last floor of the Cinq Fleche broke in a shower of glasses, everybody look confused at each other while they covered themselves of the cutting pieces of glass. Serenity in the worst of moments though, was something that the queer chevalier had as one of his many hidden talents; he remained in his seat enjoying of the moment as he saw everyone else ducked near the rose bushes and marble columns.

The queer chevalier stood up and walked around through the conservatory, looking calm as always, shaking the pieces of glass from his clothes. Somehow he did not looked amazed, but almost as if he already knew what could or was going on in that moment.

"David!" the red haired man screamed.

"I know Kai!" he responded as he dialed in his cell phone, "I'm calling Joel right now. "

"That is useless right now." the queer chevalier said laughing, "I suggest that if you appreciate your lives, you shall leave this building."

"How do we know you are not lying?" Kai screamed.

"_You_ have a problem with trust, you know that?" he said as he smirked. "Well, at least in trusting _me_. But oh, well; stay if you must value your precious Saya over your lives."

Kai looked angered at the blond chevalier who, stood on top of one of the marble columns.

The chevalier rose up in the sky in form of what you could like to describe as a kind of giant bat, and flew out of the collapsing building; they saw then the truth in his words, and did what he had recommended, escape if they appreciated being alive.

"What about Saya!" Kai once again asked, "Didn't we came here to look for her?"

"She is fine. Now leave." a voice from above called.

They evacuated the building as fast as they could, moving rapidly from staircase to staircase.

As they reached the bottom floors, a sudden explosion was heard, and most of the building which was not in ruins or already collapsed, disappeared. They kept moving even though of the explosion, it was not time for asking questions or wondering what could be possibly happening. At the moment they reached the ground level, the building collapsed entirely once and for all, destroying the once powerful pharmaceutical enterprise.

"First Yanbaru, then the Opera House," Kai said panting as he moved out of the debris, "is every place we go on a mission, destined to be destroyed?"

"Maybe you bring the bad luck hon." Mao said reluctantly.

"Gee, thanks." he replied sarcastically as everyone else laughed, "We need to look for Saya."

"Well, it seems she . . . they had founded us." Lewis said perplexed.

A tall figure walked in the darkness, towards them, it was Haji with Saya in his arms; everyone did not knew how to react, because it seemed as something from the daily basis, but at the same time it seemed as something shocking when you stop seeing it after a few years. He lay Saya's feet on the ground, and she carefully grasped Haji's arm in order not to fall to fall, she seemed to be still a little bit weak. Then as always, a familiar loud and somehow sarcastic laugh was heard, from behind them.

The queer chevalier was sitting in the wire fence, watching the "reunion scene" while everybody's attention focused on Saya and Haji. It was when he laughed, that everybody's attention moved from the couple to the chevalier on the fence. He slowly descended with a grace you could only find in a non-human being and moved toward the group of people.

"Oh, dear! Such a lovely reunion." he said sarcastically, "I should have brought my camera! What a shame though."

"Nathan!" Saya said as her eyes literally red glowed with anger.

"Nice to see you remembered that your chevalier would be here." he said as he stood a fair distance away from her, "Though you haven't told him about the kids, have you?"

She stood in silence watching the chevalier in front of her, she did not answer because she knew it was true. Nathan saw her reaction and just laughed as he walked forward towards her. He grabbed her hand and saw her directly to the eyes.

"It seems you haven't." he said sighing as he let her hand go, "Well, it seems we all keep secrets, don't we Saya?

His words seem to infuriate her more and more, how could he stand there and talk so calmly about something it did not concerned him?

"It seems you know a lot about secrets." She said daring, "Right, Nathan?"

"Oh, well, I might know a thing or two, maybe more" he said trying not to laugh.

"Well," David said "it would be helpful though if you said some of those."

"Maybe I will," Nathan replied,"But not here and not now, maybe I will if you let me _visit_ the daughters of my precious Diva. Would you?"

"It's a deal" he said as he picked up his phone, "But you will have to come with us."

"Ok." Nathan said sighing, "I'll make the sacrifice."

"Joel would be expecting us in the Red Shield Headquarters, in an hour or so." he said as he ended the call, "Lets move on."

The way back to the headquarters was longer than usual when you spend that time with people you would rather not like to spend time and in a situation you would like to somehow escape of its awkwardness.

The van stopped by the harbor, as everybody descended and moved along, Saya and Nathan stood behind before they went into the ship.

"Why are you willing to help us?" Saya asked him confused.

"My dear queen," he said," it is only matter of time until it is all revealed, and believe me it is not a thing that we need. Besides I am a chevalier with no mistress, it was my choice to tell you what is going on."

"What do you mean?" she asked perplexed.

"You'll see." he said with a smirk as he walked to the ship.

Everything seemed like twilight, not one thing nor the other, but both; just causing to raise the same questions as always; questions that caused to confuse and raise more theories that changed their current perspective on their reality.


End file.
